Torbernite (classic locality)

Item Description

Wonderful rich emerald green "rosettes" composed of thin platy crystals of Torbernite cover a few sides of this small cabinet specimen. The largest crystal measures about 3 mm. Very attractive up close, and certainly a wonderful example of this beloved and sought after copper uranium phosphate from this classic locality.
From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #20585CL. Chet's collection catalogue states that he acquired this piece in May of 1986 from a "hippy dealer" at the Hackensack Show. Chet was born 1947 in started collecting minerals circa 1957. He worked briefly as a drill runner at the famous Sterling Mine, in Ogdensburg, New Jersey and from 1987 to 1990 he helped convert the mine into a public access mining museum. He has held the role of treasurer, vice president and president of the Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society (FOMS), and has been a board member and vice president of the Franklin Mineral Museum. The rare copper arsenate, Lemanskiite was named in his honor in 1999.