Fluorapatite on Quartz

$6,500.00

Free shipping
Seller offers an extended return window of up to 30 days
Ships from USA

T

The ArkenstoneFeatured

3,403 for sale·Member since 2026

Sharp fluorapatites with phantomed green zoning were found, at their best, in old finds of the late 1960s into the 1970s and remain, to most of us, the most classic style and discovery of this most famous Portuguese locality (see Bancroft's Gem & Crystal Treasures, among others). Here is a razor sharp, perfect quartz crystal hosting perfect textbook apatite crystals - the largest measuring 2.7 x 2.5 cm. Note the amazing zoning, also reflected in fluorescent light where you see orange and yellow highlights due to trace minerals (presumably manganese for the orange and perhaps a limited iron content for the yellow banding). The specimen is complete all around. The apatite crystals are actually sharp and flat, unless you look at them under bright and angled light, and then you see unusual surface features we can only describe as "growth dimples"... see photo. Such quartz-hosted apatites were always the highlight of any classical Golden Age collection of the time, and this came from the Herb Obodda collection (which we purchased in 2008).