Rhodochrosite on Quartz (Mined: 1977)

Item Description

The Sweet Home Mine is best known for producing arguably the finest Rhodochrosite crystals in the world. This piece was personally collected by Dave Bergman in the summer of 1977, and features sharp, gemmy, pinkish-red colored, well-formed rhombs of Rhodochrosite measuring up to 7 mm, sitting among "needle" Quartz crystals on a thin slab of matrix. The piece is in good shape as I can find see any major damage to the Rhodos, but there are some slight imperfections on the edges. This particular association was notably rare during Dave's time mining at the Sweet Home, as the vast majority of the pockets they found contained mostly sulfides, so Rhodos on Quartz matrix were few and far between. Some people have told me that their favorite look of Sweet Home pieces is Rhodos on Quartz, and it's easy to see why. A really cool old time specimen of this classic material from the Sweet Home. This piece comes from the personal collection of Colorado mining legend, Dave Bergman, the maternal grandfather of Brian Kosnar. Dave is now retired from mining, but he worked for decades in various mines underground in Colorado, as a miner, mechanic, engineer, shift boss and foreman. His biggest claim to fame is that he was the foreman and the primary person in charge of mining and specimen recovery at the Sweet Home Mine in Colorado in the 1970s alongside his son-in-law, Rich Kosnar. This project what was the FIRST ever operation for specimen recovery at this historic locality. A full-page photograph of Dave can be seen mining underground at the Sweet Home in on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures".