Stephanite

Unknown Owner

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Shockingly iridescent, these rare Canadian classics are among my favorite of all silver species not simply because of beauty, but also for their rarity and fascinating origin story. They are also regarded by many to be (in this size range) the finest examples of their species because they are so colorful and sharply crystallized, whereas most examples are black to silvery in coloration. This competition-level small miniature (or "toenail") stephanite specimen features superb, vertically oriented, stacked crystals, to 3.3 cm in height. It was originally from the Mark Mauthner collection as he had most of the best of them, direct from Joe Weinholtzner (the famous story is that this is the miner who famously preserved them from the old find in 1977 stored them all in a heap in an old coffee can, sitting in his home for a few decades). Later, in the miniatures collection of Brett Keller (our friend, a well-known vintner of Mineral Wine fame). These exceptional and uniquely colorful specimens were collected in 1977 by Joe and feature a very attractive purple/blue/red/green iridescence, which continues to set them off from other worldwide localities for these species.