Beryl var. Heliodor

Unknown Owner

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Unusual, very distinctive heliodor beryl crystals with strong color came out of the Walking Stick Mine once upon a time... and remain unique and immediately recognizable to this day. The miner named it this because, obviously, this was how he found the mine while walking and the crystals also look like sticks. Not many were ever produced and my understanding is that this was an artisanal mine with low overhead. These beryls were mined in the late 1970s and some were hoarded by the mine owner and exploration geologist, Bob Contat. He sold or traded them into the market at intervals in small batches over the 1980s-1990s; and then more came out from a shoebox left in his estate upon his death in the 1990's (which we obtained at the time and sold on iRocks). This is a piece with unusually strong color, 12.8 grams. It was in the Larson beryl collection by the late 1980s and has been there since.