Fluorite

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This is a very unique and scarce example of purple fluorite from the Rogerley, now world famous for green fluorite. However, in the very early days of the exploration here by a specimen mining company formed by the Greenbanks, and Ralph and Mick Sutcliffe families, Mick Sutcliffe hit one small vein of purple material. This was, by Lindsay's account, the best specimen of the find and was long kept in Mick's own collection (MS#300) before passing to his brother, and then to Lindsay in 1991. The color here is described on Lindsay's label as "blackberry colored" and indeed, the purple is SO intense, it is darker than the more normal grape juice hues you see from this region. Crystals reach 2 cm and have a shockingly deep color in normal light and in fluorescent light (or sunlight, which brings out the UV purple glow nicely as well). When we cleaned this specimen and trimmed it down from its original unwieldy size (it had been kept "rough" as it came from the mine all these years!) we found that the large crystal to the left had been repaired - but this in no way visually detracts. The ironstone, contrasting matrix is also unusual, in combination proving this specimen is not just another Frazers Hush purple fluorite, but something more uncommon and atypical. The miners called this the "Sutcliffe vein" but in over 35 years since, no more purples have been found. The locality is today still worked for GREEN fluorites by an inheritor company of this original group.