Phosgenite

Unknown Owner

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Unlike most phosgenites from this important old lead mining district, this one is both beautifully arranged, and sparkly. Thick, tabular, glassy and gemmy, light champagne-colored phosgenite crystals, to 5 cm across, are sculpturally emplaced on a just bit of matrix. They shoot off it like wings. It is nearly pristine, though not quite 100% so; acceptable for a mineral that is probably 100 years old and more. This less common, close cousin to cerussite exhibits the same adamantine luster in its best form. The Monteponi Mine has arguably produced the finest phosgenite crystals ever found, and this is a more-than-representative specimen that actually id displayable and aesthetic. Ex. Giancarlo Fioravanti collection, and he obtained it in 1970 from older collections in Italy.