Rhodochrosite ps. Sturmanite

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What a beautiful and interesting pseudomorph! This geometric, almost red-black, scintillating piece features a complete pseudomorph of Rhodochrosite after Sturmanite from the N'Chwaning I Mine in the Kalahari Manganese Field of South Africa. The replacement has almost perfectly preserved the shape of one larger, 2.4 cm crystal and a somewhat smaller, 1.7 cm crystal. Both are casts after the original Sturmanite and each of them have holes at the top so you can look right into the partially hollow crystals! The exterior of the entire piece covered in a glistening druse of rich, dark red to red-black Rhodochrosite crystals and the bottom of the piece has a slight indentation that is filled with these gorgeous Rhodos to 1.5 mm! It's an amazing piece and a fabulous pseudomorph, and unique in our experience. We had Charlie Key's African collection of over 5000 specimens and there was not one in there...this is genuinely surprising. Featured in the book Collecting Pseudomorphs: The Changelings of Mineralogy (Mineralogical Record, January 2025) on p. 69, fig. 16. Part of an educational set, with these additional items: Rhodochrosite (SYP25-13a) and Sturmanite (SYP25-13c).