Rhodochrosite

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Glassy and gemmy, this cherry-red cluster of scalenohedral rhodochrosite has crystals to 9 mm in length. Just a gorgeous thumbnail! It is a perfect balance and size to impress, and has the best color and best gemminess. These came out in the early 1980s, in just a few pockets, and this style was never seen before or after. Note that, as with nearly all such specimens, there are minute cleavages at the tips - this is just how they were found in nature. This piece has a few very small cleaves, including one to the leftmost crystal but that is at the edge. As far as they go, it is important to be honest about this slight damage issue while also allowing for the fact that this is what nature gave us for this particular find. It remains one of the ultimate classics, and specimens like this are hard to come by. Few enough thumbnail clusters were saved, and this was long in Areson's competitive case.