The rarest color of topaz is purple or red, and this is the special quality of purple topaz with a gemminess and sparkle that came out of a single pocket the size of a basketball (or smaller) in the late 1980s. A few pockets have been found since, most recently in 2017, but the crystals have less sparkle to them, or less gemminess (even if they might be larger or more deeply colored). This is a bright and classic example of a rare find.