RLIL14C-15
Fluorite and Calcite (Floater)
Minerva Mine, Hardin Co., Illinois, USA
Small Cabinet, 7.5 x 6.9 x 5.6 cm
SOLD
A unique, double-sided specimen! Superb and elegant, the main display side features a lustrous and translucent color zoned fluorite with a light yellow core and a 5 mm wide bright blue color at the termination edges. It is so sharp and geometric that it leaps out when on display in a lit case. It has a richness of color that the photos do not quite convey. Moreover, the specimen is a floater with crystallization on back as well - The back side is studded with colorless calcite nail-head crystals, to 1.9 cm in length (a very unusual form for the district). So, the fluorite corner apparently formed, fell off of its "mother crystal" and then was covered on one side by calcite as it lay upside down in the pocket, later in its life. Only one small corner is broken, and this is on the back as I would display it. It is otherwise complete all around. A bizarre and strange progression of growth (paragenesis). Under fluorescent light, the fluorite is a light grayish green. RCL 4340