Almandine Garnet on Schist

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Aesthetically perched on a gray-green schist, this dramatic, textbook-sharp almandine garnet crystal displays perfect dodecahedral form. Although opaque, these dark reddish-brown crystals exhibit surface coloration of a wine-red hue. This is a classic and important locality for garnet dating back hundreds of years! Since they have to be physically picked out of the surrounding matrix, the surfaces are usually dull and are, almost always, given a very slight buffing to imrpove the luster. This one surely was lightly rubbed, again as nearly all are; but here it was only very minimally done as opposed to the outright polishing we have sometimes seen. Nature of the beast...to get them out, and make them pretty, they just need a little help afterwards. The crystal is freestanding on its pedestal of matrix, and measures approx 6.5 cm across at widest tip-to-tip measurement. Joe Budd Photos.