Shigaite (ex Charlie Key coll.)

Item Description

Shigaite is a very rare hydrated manganese aluminum sodium sulfate mineral, which was named after the Shiga Prefecture in Japan, where it was first discovered. The finest examples of the species were found at the prestigious N'Chwaning I Mine in South Africa in the late 1990s into the early 2000s. Very few specimens are found these days, and it's a shame, as it's a truly beautifully species, and is often found with colorful associated minerals like pink Rhodochrosite. This piece is a wonderful small cabinet specimen featuring a "rose"-shaped group of highly lustrous, platy, deep reddish-brown colored crystals of Shigaite measuring 9 mm across, aesthetically perched on the end of the piece, sitting atop bubbly, sparkling beautiful pink colored Rhodochrosite on matrix. With backlighting, the Shigaite group shows attractive fiery internal color. There is a tiny bit of imperfect edge wear to the Shigaite group that you can see with a loupe, but the piece is in very good shape and present quite well as you can see from the photos. A showy and extremely hard to find association specimen from this famous locality. For reference, Shigaite is the manganese analogue of Nikischerite and Poellmannite. From the collection of Vasco Trancoso, a medical doctor and prominent mineral collector from near Lisbon, Portugal (https://www.mindat.org/user-11954.html). He assembled his mineral collection over the course of 60 years, and built a fine worldwide display collection that we recently purchased. This piece is pictured on mindat.org.  it was obtained from us in the early 2000s when we brokered the sale of the personal collection of legendary dealer, Charlie Key (Keyite and Ludlockite fame), and it was in his personal collection since the year it was found in the 1980s. Charlie had suites of thumbnails, miniatures, and small cabinets, and tended to keep one of each from each pocket he acquired. This was valued even at the time in the thousands of dollars.