Ramsdellite

Unknown Owner

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This is a very old classic of US collecting that we do not see much today. It is a superbly crystallized group of unusually lustrous and large crystals of the rare manganese oxide species Ramsdellite. Ramsdellite is a polymorph of Pyrolusite and these are excellent crystals for the species with the largest crystal here standing at 2.3 cm tall and 1.5 cm across! The large crystal stands commandingly on and above the other crystals on the piece which are all placed on a thin sliver of matrix. The big crystal is has well-defined faces and edges and is almost textbook in orthorhombic form. This is an exceptional miniature for the species! Self-collected and owned for decades by the well-known collector and former museum curator Bill Panczner (author of Minerals of Mexico). It is a superb USA origin miniature, but ALSO a truly great example of the species.