Benitoite

This rich benitoite specimen has a dozen or so sharp benitoite crystals on a bed of snowy white natrolite, to 2 cm across (largest). Under ultraviolet lighting, the benitoite glows a shocking bright blue, and this is an unusually large and robust plate of material from this historic deposit. When benitoite was initially discovered in the early 1900s in San Benito County, the prospectors hoped they found blue diamonds, even if shaped like triangles. While that wasn't the case, they DID find a new species, benitoite, and the mine would continue to produce occasional, fabulous pockets of rich blue benitoite (and neptunite) specimens for the following decades until it closed in the early 2000s. Large specimens like this are simply uncommon on the market, and the world does not make more.