Name: Cahnite with Marsturite on Rhodonite with Franklinite
Brand: The Arkenstone
Price: 10000 USD
Availability: InStock

Cahnite with Marsturite on Rhodonite with Franklinite

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This is a colorful and unusual Franklin, New Jersey combination specimen that hosts rare cahnite and marsturite on rhodonite with franklinite in a rare and rich piece from early 1900s finds here. Single crystals of larger size were found in a pocket around 1908, and this piece probably dates to 1920s-1930s finds. We almost never see cahnite of any quality or size - let alone a cabinet display specimen! Cahnite is a rare calcium arsenate-borohydroxide and marsturite is a very rare calcium-iron-manganese silicate and the Franklin Mine is the type locality for both species. And, here, we see VEINS of cahnite - not just the usual few crystals or smear on matrix. This shows how they formed, in situ. The bright pink, subhedral, granular rhodonite appears to be a fracture filling in a granular massive franklinite-rich matrix. Both the cahnite and marsturite are restricted to the rhodonite on fracture surfaces. The cahnite occurs as colorless to whitish, translucent to transparent, lustrous, subhedral, platy crystals to 5 mm, mostly as aggregates and some are isolated and all rest on and in small open spaces in the granular rhodonite, often with small, 1 to 2 mm rhodonite crystals. The marsturite occurs similarly on and in the rhodonite, but as coatings and finely crystalline, tan colored mats and groups of tiny crystals up to 1 mm, but generally less than 1 mm. Both of the rare species contrast well on the pink rhodonite. An excellent and rare combination piece from Franklin that displays richly and beautifully.