Galena (Spinel Twinned) with Calcite

Unknown Owner

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When I grew up in the mineral world of the Midwest in the 1980s, there were tables of abundant Naica material coming to the market in wholesale quantities. Several major wholesale dealers and various individuals brought out Naica mixed sulfides and fluortites by the hundreds. However, most of the specimens were small, and few had dramatic large crystals. Galena specimens of any quality were particularly rare as dominant crystals, although galena was common enough as an accent to fluorite and calcite specimens. So, even at that time, this would have been a noteworthy specimen for the size of the spinel-twinned galenas, to 6 cm. More than that, the specimen is overall very aesthetic, with a nice composition and contrast of the metallic galena against white calcite. It simply has a very dramatic look to it. The galena is so fine, that it looks machined, almost not natural. Specimens like this, of this size and display worthiness, were never common. This particular piece has since then, been in the collection of Ruben Avila, Mexico-based mineral dealer and scout for several dealerships over the decades. It is a treasure of "old style"Mexican mineral collecting and would have found an easy home even in the Miguel Romero collection, one of the few other major Mexico collections assembled in these last 50 years or so. Having bought that collection myself for multiple millions, I can testify that his Naica twinned galena was not this good. It is a stunning piece, a composition, in person.