Tourmaline "The Haircut"

Unknown Owner

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This remarkable DOUBLY-TERMINATED crystal is simply HUGE by any standard, especially San Diego COunty standards. It is impressive and colorful, as you can see. It is translucent but not gemmy, as are all the large CG tourmalines. It is one of 12 monstrous crystals found in late 2002, the largest of which now resides in the LA County Museum (the "BAT"). As you would expect from anything large in the severely disrupted pegmatites of San Diego County, all of them had repairs (usually multiple repairs), though this one has only one repair about the middle, and it is a fairly clean one at that. To my mind, when I saw them all on exhibit in Tucson 2003, I thought this one the best combination of "reasonable size," condition, and aesthetics - so I was just thrilled that it was the one Korpi bought in the end through his relationship with the Gochenours. I had frankly tried to buy a number of them but was way down the line of priority and I accept that...I am no longer in-county and there were MANY local collectors and institutions which needed specimens. These are simply unavailable on the market mainly for that reason - it is not so much about money or pricing, per se, as the fact that San Diego is densely populated by mineral fanatics who love their own rocks (much like Arizonans but more concentrated!). As far as contemporary mining in SDCO, this mine has been the epicenter of excitement in recent years as the White Queen failed to reopen and the Himalaya closed. While it is unclear what may come out of the CG next, the fact is that the mine is composed of generally small and sporadic pockets and the odds of another find like the one that produced this specimen are very remote.