Scheelite (VERY RARE locality specimen!) (flourescent)

Item Description

This is not only the first Scheelite that we've had to offer from the Cullen's Mine in North Carolina, it's the first piece I can remember seeing from the locality, period. It's also quite showy to boot! It's not an ugly reference piece, but rather an attractive small cabinet display specimen featuring a 1.0 cm, sharp, well-formed, modified tetragonal crystal with an unusual yellow-golden color and even a bit of internal gemminess when backlit, beautifully positioned in the center of a mass of compacted golden Muscovite blades. The Scheelite shows a lovely bright blue fluorescence under SW UV light. A significant and highly desirable specimen for any fan of Scheelites, tungsten minerals, or specimens from North Carolina. The piece comes with an old label from the collection of Charles Noll, and there is a label attached to the base of specimen stating it is from the Cardeza Collection. It's impossible to ascertain fair market value for such a supreme rarity, but if I had it on the shelf at a show for sale, I would have it in the $3,500 range.
From the collection of Norman Kennedy ("Kenny") Gay (1953-2023), a geologist, geoscience educator and mineral collector from North Carolina. (#M79 C.3). Kenny worked for North Carolina Geological Survey starting 1995, and he was a member of the adjunct faculty at Wesleyan College, and a professor of geology since 2001. He assembled a large collection of worldwide minerals specimens, though he focused mainly on minerals of North Carolina. Kenny did substantial work documenting all of the significant mineral occurrences and mining/mineral collecting in North Carolina. He might be best associated with the Redmond Mine, where the rare extremely rare lead sulfate Kennygayite was discovered and named in his honor in 2022. Kenny was the first person to collect specimens at this locality, which lead Jason Smith to take an interest in this assemblage, and later name a mineral in Kenny's honor.