This is the finest dioptase thumbnail for my taste, that I have handled. Roland and Kathy Sherman considered it to be among the best dioptase thumbnails period, when they obtained it. It is indeed a SUPERB dioptase with two balanced, prefect crystals perched on calcite. Each species has the best color and lustre. Ex Zweibel personal collection, to the Jim and Dawn Minette collection in 1992 when the Zweibels sold their secret stash and retired from mineral dealing. The Minettes traded this to Roland and Kathy Sherman in 2001, where it remained since. It was in many prizewinning exhibits by both the Minettes and Shermans. A note on Roland's index card label adds: "Bought out from under me at the '92 Denver show by Minette!" - and he never forgot it! . From the Roland and Kathy Sherman thumbnail collection: they are competitive thumbnail exhibitors from Southern California, specializing in copper species. Joe Budd Photos

This is just a wonderful , aesthetic combo specimen from Naica, among the most unique I can recall seeing. The matrix is a lustrous and translucent, doubly terminated, milky white rhomdohedral crystal of calcite measuring 5 cm across. Perched aesthetically on the calcite crystal are 3 complexly intergrown octahedrons of lustrous and translucent, lavender-purpley fluorite to 2.6 cm in length. As if their intergrowth were not complex enough, they exhibit stepped growth which creates a myriad of reflecting facets. For added measure the fluorite crystals are studded with brassy yellow pyrite crystals, to 2mm across. Superb in every way, this is a unique specimen far beyond the usual combo. You couldn't make better aesthetics if you glued it together. Comes with custom lucite base already made for the specimen. This specimen was on loaned exhibit in the University of Arizona Museum for over a decade until my purchase of this collection in 2008.