Vanadinite

Unknown Owner

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This huge and impressive, curving plate of super lustrous brick-red vanadinites are from the world's premier locality for the species at Mibladen, Morocco. To those who saw it prominently displayed in Jack's basement showcases, this was always memorable for the size of the crystals and the nearly pristine nature of the large plate, from a famous 2001 pocket (note the cute note that Daniel Trinchillo gave Jack at the time). There are dozens of vanadinites distributed quite evenly across the matrix with the larger ones dominating over much of the piece; and some smaller ones around the periphery. The largest crystal is a shocking 3 cm across! The faces of these sharply formed hexagonal crystals are glassy and mirror-like and average a whopping 1 to 2 cm in size although the largest is 3 cm. The crystals are all translucent to some extent, shimmering with abundant internal reflections in the skin. The condition of piece is excellent, and the video shows just how choice this cabinet specimen is (nearly pristine). For the time, this was considered one of the world's best of species. Several large later pockets have produced larger specimens, but each pocket (2008 and 2016 in particular) was of a different style, subtly different than previous finds. This remains a dominating, important example of a species where there are thousands of lesser examples out there on the market. The overall impact of the color, size, crystal size, and glassy sparkle here needs to be seen in person to be believed. NOTE: Not for international shipment, sorry.