SM22-134
Gold in Quartz
Ganzhizhou Mine, Meigu Co., Liangshan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China
Small Cabinet, 5.4 x 3.7 x 2.5 cm
Ex. Alessandro Pelligrini
$12,000.00 Payment Plan Available
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Numerous, brilliant metallic clusters of flattened to rounded Gold crystals and stringers richly adorn and thread through this super attractive Quartz-Galena matrix piece from Sichuan Province in China. Some of the bright yellow metal protrudes everywhere from the white and gray contrasting matrix; and some is still embedded in the Quartz and Galena that serves as the matrix for this lovely piece. From old mining in the 1980s brought out by an Italian collector (Alessandro Pelligrini) at the time (he was an airline pilot, making it easier to carry minerals!), this sparkling and colorful piece presents well from both sides! This was in the Alessandro Pellegrino collection, a well-known collector in Europe who started collecting in his teens and who sold only recently (2019-2020). Specimens like this generally have no ties in pricing to their actual value of gold, as gold specimens found in crystallized or leaf form are rarer than nuggets, and significantly more rare than the processed ore smelted to make gold bars. Nevertheless, though i abhor weighing minerals like this, it is 107 grams, which is 3.44 ounces, of which most of the weight here should be gold, so you can approximate 3 ounces of gold as a safe bet on content here (which means, intrinsic value of 6k or so). This specimen is a particularly elegant example from this Chinese locality.