Willemite In Rhodonite - image 1
Willemite In Rhodonite - image 2
Willemite In Rhodonite - image 3
Willemite In Rhodonite - image 4

Willemite In Rhodonite

Unknown Owner
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At 1600 grams, this is a fairly good-sized, impressively hefty specimen! Like the above piece, I am frankly shocked I talked my Franklin-loving friend into culling it as a duplicate because although he has other major willemites (in an extensive collection!), these two are really fine ones the likes of which I have not seen on the public market for sale, recently. This piece features fat willemite crystals to 7 cm tall, with a few franklinites perched upon them. They are ensconced in calcite (fluorescent red) and rhodonite matrix. The specimen was long on display in the Paterson Museum, which only let it trade out as part of an exchange for some extremely rare and valuable New Jersey pearls from the 1800s...or this never would have left the museum. A superb, impactful specimen!

Product details

SpeciesWillemite, Rhodonite
SizeLarge Cabinet
Dimensions16.4 x 10.0 x 8.4 cm
Added on10/23/2024
LocalityUSA, New Jersey, Sterling Hill Mine

Known provenance

DateCollectorAcquisition price
08/2024Unknown OwnerNot disclosed
—The ArkenstoneNot disclosed

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Willemite
Mineral guide
Learn about Willemite
fluorescent zinc silicate with UV glow; daylight colors range from colorless to pistachio, iconic from Franklin–Sterling Hill and Tsumeb.
Willemite
Regional guide
Willemite from Sterling Hill Mine, New Jersey, USA
Sterling Hill willemite is one of the classic collector materials of American mineralogy: a zinc silicate, Zn2SiO4, that can look modest in daylight and then turn electric green under ultraviolet light. In the best pieces, tan to reddish-brown willemite crystals sit in white calcite with black franklinite and, less commonly, red zincite—an ore assemblage so distinctive that even small fragments announce the Franklin-Ogdensburg district at a glance. The daylight palette is earthy and old-mine: mahogany, brick red, honey brown, buff, white, and black. Under shortwave UV, however, willemite becomes the bright green signal in the rock, while calcite may burn red to orange-red and franklinite stays dark.