Liroconite, a rare and beautiful copper species, is one of those Holy Grails of mineral collecting to own in impressive specimens. These were collected in the early to mid 1800s, and then never again. They remain unique to this ancient mine in good quality, and nothing like it has been found anywhere else since. Even small specimens with 4-5 mm crystals are considered rare and desirable. Seldom do you see one so rich, so colorful, as this piece! It has a quartz pocket hosting a rich coating of liroconite in all the crevasses between the quartz, for a super, intense blue color to the piece as a whole. Although there is much damage and the color is largely due to a simple drapery of drusy liroconite, still it is so rich that the piece has a significance for that alone. But mixed in with the color background, are some very robust, large crystals to 9mm, particularly in two protected pockets about the middle of the specimen. In fact, I think that a careful but somewhat risky trim about the middle would result in two specimens, each displaying a major crystal in its pocket very well, and the result being worth the same for each half of the piece. Ex Harvard Museum collection. Joe Budd photos