Elbaite (Double Terminated) Tourmaline

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This is a fascinating individual 'floater' Elbaite tourmaline crystal: 'floater' because it is complete all round, showing no point of attachment to host rock. Doubly-terminated, its lower termination is a totally flat pinacoid face, with its upper termination displaying a classic 'tourmaline' three-sided gently sloping pyramidal. Not only is this 3.3 cm long single crystal doubly-terminated, but it has a great colour too - grading from a pleasant pale raspberry-pink glassy body colour up into an intense strawberry-red tip. Down its sides the crystal is not perfectly formed, but is not damaged. It is very slightly sceptred on one edge, where stepped crystal growth near to its termination makes it wider than lower down its prism, and on one side a 'window' into the crystal can be seen where a small portion of the outer layer hasn't developed fully. It is from the modern classic pegmatite deposits at Coronel Murta in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.