This is old classic material, mined several decades ago. VERY FEW old stibnites from this famous and now defunct district have any kind of modern, world-level aesthetics to them. This one, however, can hold its own against contemporary chinese material collected under better conditions. It is nearly pristine, and has a very aesthetic arrangement of radiating crystals from a common center. The crystals reach 3 cm. Small, sharp, gem-clear barites to 4 mm abound in the crevasses between the crystals. I have also chosen not to overclean this to make it bright and shiny - it retains its original patina.

This is a Ryker Mount box with approx. 20 crystals of varying shapes and sizes, of boleite. They are mostly cubic, in habit. These are from the famous late 1970s re-exploration of this prospect by Larson and Swoboda. Sizes reach 9mm, though the largest one is not sharply cubic

From a famous find of 2006, this is a superb example of spinel-twinned copper crystals from a one-time erratic find. All came from a single large boulder found by Stan Esbenshade, and carefully trimmed out. This is a complete floater, terminated all around and formed in a spongy mass of strange copper float material. This is a particularly gracile and elegant, slightly curving, specimen composed of a central twinned crystal from which outgrowths shoot to the sides. This was a onetime find, and now these are hard to find for sale today. Classic!

These exceptional and uniquely colorful silver species specimens were collected in 1977 by Joe Weinholtzner at a remote location. Rumour (and truth as it turns out !) has it that nearly all were stored in a coffee can at the time and kept that way for decades. Not the best packing job for a collector.... Though many were sold at the time, a number of the largest and finest pieces were kept back and many of these came to market through Mark Mauthner, in 2004-2005. The polybasite crystals, of which this is one of the larger and more robust examples that I have seen for sale from the locality, have been previously very scarce on the market in any size above thumbnail. Most are thin plates, whereas this is a robust, 3-dimensional cluster. The specimens feature a very attractive purple/blue/red/green iridescence, which sets them off from other worldwide localities for these species (both the polybasite and stephanite from here have the coloration). The mine is defunct and despite searching, no more have been found here in 30 years now. This phenomenal specimen is one of the very best Husky miniatures I have seen for sale. It is from the collection of Dr. Mark Mauthner. The display face has no damage, save a (small) ding at the top of the left cluster, and it is otherwise in good shape. It is contacted on the bottom edge and a bit on the backside, but again is nearly pristine where it matters most. The color is spectacular: a metallic mix of iridescent purple, red and blue hues (much more obvious in person than the pictures indicate). Individual crystals reach 1.7 cm.

SHARP, intensely colorful crystals to about 3 mm cover this matrix plate and make for a very attractive and significant example of the species for this locale. Although you get larger libethenite from other places, the lustre and sharpness of these crystals is, for me, among the top for the species. They look like little green metallic octohedra at first glance. From the John Ydren collection, purchased for $125 in 1972 (a lot of money for those days!). Again, while you can get bigger crystals, this to me has more flash and color appeal than most, and overall is a superb example of the species. NOTE THIS SPECIMEN IS FEATURED IN THE OCTOBER 2010 ISSUE OF LAPIS, PAGE 9, ON THE COLUMN ABOUT "STECKBRIEF: LIBETHENITE"

This beautiful miniature specimen features a GEMMY 1.7 cm crystal atop, which is of quite rare size for the species. More than that, it will literally cut a large stone, again a rarity for the species. This was in the Irv Brown miniatures collection in San Diego, in the mid 1990s, and was then sold as he switched from miniatures to larger specimens. At the time, I recall that the local gem cutter (aka Mark the Butcher of Good Crystals) offered him $1200 for the piece as (wholesale) cutting rough. Irv and I were both mortified! But, that speaks to the rarity of cut gems of this incredibly intense purple color, of any species. Funny enough, I had forgotten about the piece for over a decade and just came across it , to reacquire it, recently. I recognized it immediately of course, as there is so much mediocrity available for these old finds (mostly came out over 30 years ago), and this one was exceptional.