Afghanite

Unknown Owner

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Afghanite is a very rare species only known in good crystals in recent years, though from an ancient and long-worked deposit for lazurite. Crystals of this size, however, are not at all common, even though a number of afghanite specimens have been mined over the last 5 years or so. This is a 4.5 x 1.5 x 1.3 cm crystal with rich blue color, and it is highly translucent when backlit. In fact, it is gemmy enough inside that you can cut stones from it of a pale blue color. The darkest shade of blue here is at the top end of the spectrum for the species, and rarely seen in any crystals over 1 cm. The crystal is doubly terminated and complete, having been excavated very carefully from the surrounding marble matrix. In all, then, it is a superb example for the species and the find, showing more aesthetics than one can normally expect. This specimen was formerly in the Ed David collection, in New Jersey, and has his #116C attached.