Sharp, very gemmy, pear-green crystals of diopside to nearly 2 cm spray out from a graphite matrix. The lustre and glassiness of the crystals is remarkable, as is their perch on contrasting (and seldom preserved) matrix.

This is a very old creedite from some of the earlier finds in the Santa Eulalia district for the species, before the better-known purple examples came out in the 1980s. The lustre and crystal size here (to 1.6 cm) are both outstanding. The piece is a dramatic small-cabinet size with a rounded, crystal-covered ball at one end. It was owned by Dave Wilber , who says he paid "a total fortune" when it came out, in the late 1970s. By the mid-1980s he had traded it to Steve Smale, in whose collection it stayed until a recent exchange with me. Despite more creedite, and frankly more colorful creedite, that came out later this still remains a very unique specimen. It has an aspect all its own and for the traditional old style, is a supremely good and important example.

I love chalcopyrites, a species that I think many people really just ignore sometimes. But this superb, competition-level miniature, is hard to put out of mind once you see it. It is the most mesmerizing example in its size class I have seen for a chalcopyrite, and just glows with color and brilliant lustre. It is as close to pristine as you can ask, especially in a soft species. Probably from older finds in the 1980s or early 90s, as I have simply not seen anything approaching this quality in recent production here. The piece is complete all around, with the crystals perched on and hanging over a thin shard of glittery matrix, covered with minute sparkling pyrite crystals. This is a competition-level miniature worthy of any major collection, despite its "common species."