Smithsonite on Willemite

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A choice single elongated rhomb of straw-yellow Smithsonite, on matrix. The crystal has good translucence, and a finely terraced texture that has both excellent and silky lusters. A very good, representative Smithsonite for this classic locality where good smithsonites are actually somewhat more rare even than Tsumeb pieces! Specimens of this particular form are often mislabeled as Tsumeb, as this one was in the Tsumeb collection we bought it in. They simply came with miners to the market in Tsumeb, got mixed in, and sold as Tsumeb for decades during the heyday here (through 1978). The matrix is too white, and has micro willemite crystals, confirming it is not Tsumeb. I often see one or two of these amidst 100 Tsumeb smithsonites, kept since those days before MINDAT and the internet clarified origins with more open information. Complete all around, and lustrous, this is a choice specimen of what I snow a rare style.