Purpurite is a rare manganese phosphate - rare from anywhere, that is, and PARTICULARLY in an American specimen! This one, fortunately, came with a partial page from an old notebook showing it to have been collected at the Newry (Maine) locality back in 1936. What is more, this is not just a thin druse of super-micro crystals, but a one-centimeter-thick solid layer, 8 cm in length. Henry Minot specimen.