A beautiful emerald with the vibrant green color and glassy luster characteristic of La Pita Mine, 3.6 cm tall, contrasted nicely on its matrix. Recently mined in early 2011, this is a most unusual specimen in that the emerald is perched on, rather embedded IN, a large rhombohedral calcite crystal. The emerald is uncracked and unrepaired, remarkable for one of this size - they usually show stress fractures at this size. It is not a thin crystal either - you can look into its depths and see it goes into the calcite. The calcite is sawed on the bottom and back, where it had to be cut out of surrounding hard rock- this does not show from the display face, in any case. What is particularly nice about this piece, is that it is very, very difficult to get anything like this display size in an emerald, without breaking the bank. While there is a compromise in that the crystal is embedded in the calcite, you get a lot of emerald and a lot of green flash in a larger piece than one might expect, for the money. Joe Budd photos