Sapphire (rare locality specimen) (ex Richard Hauck Collection)

Item Description

This specimen comes with an old hand-written label stating it is from "Chentibun, Siam", which is the modern day Province of Chanthaburi, Thailand. This might actually be the first crystal of Sapphire that we've ever had to offer in the auctions from Thailand. They're not terribly common, especially in crystal form, as most of the Thai Corundum is faceted into gemstones. This particular piece is a thick section of a Sapphire crystal that shows a deep green color (with various shades of blue and yellow here and there) when backlit. A few of the hexagonal faces are clearly present, but the piece is not 100% complete. It's still fairly sharp, so it may not have been found in an alluvial, and was possibly collected directly out of the ground. If you collect gem crystals, minerals of Southeast Asia, or cool novelty pieces, don't miss out on this interesting and rarely seen example. Specimen weight is 21.0 grams. The piece comes from the collection of Richard ("Dick") Hauck, who co-founded the Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg, New Jersey with his brother, Robert.