Wire Silver (rare Chinese locality)

Item Description

While the Hongda Mine in China is best known for its fine quality wire silver specimens, there are some excellent, but fairly obscure examples from Tongbai Co., in Henan that came out in the late 2000s. These short-lived specimens are not only desirable for their quality, they are sought after by collectors (especially native element enthusiasts) who are looking to fill a specific hole in their collection. This piece is a wonderful and fine quality group tightly packed with attractive curling wires on all sides, and no matrix. The piece honestly reminds me of an old European Silver from centuries ago, and for this specific locality, it's one of the best examples we've ever had in the auctions. Showy, fine quality and RARE on the market today. Valued $3,000.
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.