Celestine

Unknown Owner

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In terms of North American Celestine localities the Stoneco Lime City quarry at Lime City, Wood County, Ohio, USA is certainly one of the greats, having produced many exceptional crystals of Celestine in a variety of shapes and across a colour range from pale blue through grey, white and cream, but also some with attractive colour zoning. The quarry closed in the early 2000s and is now mostly flooded, but this smaller cabinet-sized specimen is much older, coming from David Hardman's North American suite, and was likely obtained by him during the 1960s or 1970s. It displays one of the classic crystal habits known from Stoneco Lime City quarry - that of pseudohexagonal pseudoprismatic crystals. This form is, on a world-scale, exceptionally unusual for Celestine, and combined with their opaque white colour is highly characteristic of this discovery. The crystals reach a good displayable size (some to over 1.5 cm in length) and form a layer growing outwards from a buff-coloured limestone/dolomite matrix. Some of the crystals do show light bruising, with some also coated with a fine sugary overgrowth, but many of the Celestine crystals are great examples of this very unusual crystal habit.