Benitoite on Natrolite

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The largest crystal here is not huge, at 13mm, but these ARE exceedingly gemmy and bright and there are a lot of them! I am told that this habit of benitoite dates to very old workings at the mine, prior to 1960. I have seen only a handful of these brilliant, gemmy crystals in the past, all in old collections. This is a relatively large, display quality examnple with over a dozen fine and gemmy benitoites. From the collection of Hubert De Monmonier (1919-2007), donated by bequest to the University of Arizona Museum to add to their displays and to provide specimens for sale to establish an endowment fund for museum operations, in perpetuity.