Elbaite

Unknown Owner

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A killer tourmaline specimen from the Santa Rosa, with both size AND quality! The color is an intense, glowing magenta through the top half. There is about a half-centimeter of light green at the top, culminating in a termination that is absolutely superb and glassy. There is minor wear along the front edge and a shallow, small contact at the left side just below the termination, but these are truly minor in the context of the specimen size. The color and translucency are outstanding, and visually the piece has a lot of impact. This is an old specimen, probably from the 1960s or 1970s. It is REALLY similar to San Diego material of the same era and could fool somebody into thinking it was from the Stewart Mine in San Diego. The crystal has a flattened shape due to obstacles to growth in back, which fortuitously makes the top part of the crystal thinner than the base to let more of the light through, when otherwise a crystal this size would have been pretty dark. You can see pretty little clusters of accenting lavender lepidolite here and there.