Spessartine Garnet (gemmy ''floater'' crystal)

Item Description

The Spessartines from the Nani Hill locality in Tanzania are some of the best orange Garnet crystals to come from any locality in decades. The excellent crystal form, combined with the rich color and excellent gemminess made them very popular with collectors. They are truly some of the largest and finest orange Spessartine crystals extant! The strong color is a sure sign that the area was incredibly rich in manganese, as Spessartines can range in color from red (iron-rich) to orange (manganese-rich). This particular piece is a notably gemmy, sharp, well-formed, textbook trapezohedral crystal with rich glowing orange color. The piece is a complete "floater" as it's crystallized on all sides. I do not know if more of these specimens will be coming out of the ground as I have seen very few of them on the market in the past few years. Garnet is a well known mineral, but you have to keep in mind that it's quite rare to find fine quality, large (anything over 1 cm is fairly good sized for Garnet in general) orange Spessartines from any locality in the world.