Smithsonite

Item Description

Smithsonite is a popular mineral with collectors due to his varying form and its rainbow of colors. One of the more distinctive and identifiable colors is that of the 79 Mine’s apple green Smithsonites. Here we have an attractive Smithsonite specimen composed of a thin crustal layer of the zinc carbonate mineral with a vitreous, apple green to light green colored botryoidal form on a limestone matrix. The lovely shade of green is due to the copper content. The lustrous Smithsonite botryoids have a random partial covering of an unknown spherical black oxide embedded in them. There are also a few spherical balls of a teal blue mineral, possibly Rosasite, as well as a small area of Hemimorphite present on the right side. The piece is in good condition with only two small areas of exposure in the Smithsonite layer both on the right side. Appealing example from the De Natura (Les Presmyk) dealer stock of this distinctively colored Smithsonite mined in the 1990s from the 79 Mine in Arizona. His old label has a price of $950 on it, which seems eminently reasonable.