Smithsonite (Cadmium-bearing) (uncommon locality)

Item Description

A beautiful and eye-catching display specimen from the famous Santa Eulalia District in Mexico featuring lovely, botryoidal formations of Smithsonite with an almost "velvety" / waxy luster, with a rarely seen golden-yellow color due to the presence of cadmium. The piece is quite reminiscent of the old classic yellow cadmium-bearing Smithsonites from the Masua Mine in Italy, or the contemporary examples from Wenshan, China, but it was found about 40 years ago (1980s era) and is an impressive and showy specimen from the limited finds at the San Antonio Mine. The piece is in superb condition on the top/display side, and the only "damage" is where the piece is forgivable contacted on the base where it was separated from the pocket wall. You can see the underlying layer of Smithsonite is a bit of a silvery-grey hue, so only the exterior layer has the cadmium content. A fine quality, aesthetic example of these elusive specimens from several decades ago.
The piece carries additional value for the fact that it is from the collection of Dr. Miguel Romero, the preeminent Mexican mineral collector of his day.