SPERRYLITE (large xl - TYPE LOCALITY)

Item Description

A CLASSIC and OLD-TIME sperrylite specimen from the historic Type Locality - the Vermilion Mine at Sudbury, Ontario. This is a rare platinum-containing species. This specimen has a (large for this locality) 4 mm, sharp, splendent sperrylite crystal is jauntily set atop iridescent chalcopyrite-rich matrix. Excellent, highly representative material from a famous mine and locality. But in superb quality - the eye visible crystal is mirror bright! Sperrylite was discovered in 1889. This is undoubtably old material probably from the late 1800s, as it has an old label on the back of the specimen. VERY RARELY available in this size and quality. We got this sleeper in an old collection and if I had bought it individually I would have paid up to $1000 for it just to have it, and happily sold it for more. As is, I got lucky and can afford to put in auction, thus. It is WORTH, though, upwards of $1000. These just so seldom turn up and are very significant examples of a very rare platninm-group mineral.