superb Gold Crystal (1800s gold rush locality)

Item Description

This exquisite thumbnail specimen is a competition level gold crystal, from a great locality. It was found in October 2002 with a bit of luck using a metal detector in this ancient gold field, by a miner. Sold to Jack by collector Neil Kinnane through Bob Noble in Tucson long ago , it comes with a letter from geologist and mineral collector Bob Noble about the locality (his letter to Jack accompanies the specimen; and there is a bit about the history of this old district.  it notes that a similar crystal is in the Smithsonian ). The deposit that was re-mined and reworked with metal detectors dated from the 1890s and was a difficult environment for digging with hand tools, as it was a coarse gravel 4 to 6 feet down. So, the oldtimers missed some gold, but the location is actually the same as the great examples of the past (1892 gold rush). We are truly honored to present this specimen from another lot of deaccessions from the collection of Jack Halpern of San Francisco, as featured in the Mineralogical Record, March 2005. This crystal is a large, fully formed gold crystal of superb form, from a great locality that dates to the 1890s even though it was a lucky find in modern reworking there. Specimens of fine gold crystals with such form and provenance like this, from anywhere, can be routinely valued near to $5000 for COMMON localities of which this is certainly not common at all. This is a stunning thing in person, 3-dimensional and impactful and actually quite heavy as it is 7.7 grams and a single crystal, surprisingly dense in the hand.