Spodumene (sharp gemmy crystal)

Item Description

Some of the finest crystals of gem quality Spodumene are those from various locales in Afghanistan. This piece is a fine quality, sharp, well-formed, GEMMY, soft yellow colored, prismatic, "sword"-shaped crystal of Triphane Spodumene, free of matrix. The crystal is in very good condition, as it's actually doubly-terminated (making it a complete "floater"), with a few areas of etching, which are not damage, but a natural occurrence that takes places in the pocket sometimes with these crystals. The fact that this is a euhedral crystal with excellent internal transparency makes it's very desirable. Very attractive and certainly worth owning if you're a fan of gem crystals, or minerals from Afghanistan. Sometimes these crystals will be labeled as "Hiddenite", but this is not accurate as the color isn't correct for what it is. Weight is 231.6 grams. Valued $1,500.
From the collection of Armon McPherson, a retired physicist, now living in New Mexico. Armon received his PhD from North Carolina State University in 1985, and worked at the laser laboratory at the University of Illinois at Circle Center. In the summer of 1997, Armon moved to the Argonne National Laboratory where he worked at the Advanced Photon Source, then the world’s largest synchrotron facility dedicated as an x-ray source. In 2001, he was asked to join a team at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque to conduct laser research for DARPA. Finally, staying within Sandia, he transferred to the Z Facility, the world’s most powerful x-ray facility. He retired in the spring of 2017. Armon's introduction to mineral collecting came in the 1980s during graduate school when he attended his first mineral show. He took up the hobby of faceting gems, and focused his early collection on gem crystals, and later transitioned into collecting non-gem species. We are proud to offer specimens from his worldwide mineral collection here for you.