Topaz

Item Description

A gorgeous gemmy Topaz crystal from Pakistan with good internal gemminess and smooth lustrous faces. Several faces featuring some beautiful pseudo-striations that are actually thin etching lines, creating a beautiful effect. The crystals is essentially colorless, but I can see a VERY faint sherry hue, often seen in these crystals. A very attractive example of what are some of the best crystallized Topaz specimens in the last 30 years or so. Specimen weight is 73.2 grams.
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.