Superb classic Metatorbernite ex Marv Rausch coll.

Item Description

These specimens of metatorbernite, formerly just known as torbernite when I was growing up, are classics from the heyday of uranium mining in these famous deposits when many radioactive and beautiful (and most of the world's best known) specimens came out mainly through Belgian exploration geologists and dealers in the 1950s-1960s. This piece was sold by Belgian dealer Eric van Dievoet to Marv Rausch in 1984. It then was in the Rausch collection for 25 years until I bought the piece when it was dispersed. These used to be nicknamed "green wulfenites" for obvious reasons! This particular pocket, found in the early 1980s, remains to this day the finest example in the world for luster and color. There are a few bigger crystals from Cornwall from the 1800s locked in museums, but they do not look like green glass as these do. Brilliant, emerald green, bladed crystals, to 2 cm in length, of metatorbernite totally cover their matrix. It is a gorgeous specimen with unusual poise and separation to the crystals, and top luster and color saturation. They simply do not make them like this anymore - these are, to most of us, the finest of the species and we almost never see them for sale in sizes over 5 cm! Ex. Dr. Marvin Rausch collection (purchased from the best selection at the time, about when they came out, in a Munich show in the early 1980s). Valued $6500-plus. These are and always will remain, one of the most beautiful green minerals in existence, with a unique appearance. Specimens of this quality only turn up rarely now from the old collections.