French bastnasite can be among the most beautiful and fine crystals for the species in a thumbnail specimen, but they seldom reach 1 cm in size or have such nice color as this fine and sharp crystal, attached to a bit of quartz. I originally bought this superb, competitive level thumbnail specimen of Bastnasite from a French geologist at the quarry who self-collected it in the 1970s. What a pleasure to see it come back around again! This was one of the thickest clusters present in his personal collection at the time, with a stack of parallel crystals measuring just a hair over 5 mm thick and nearly 2 cm across, balanced by an attached quartz crystal to one side. It is a significant example for this locality. The crystals are complete all around, and on all sides, even on the bottom where a small bit of attached matrix clings to their bottom terminations. Shown here are both backlit and frontal lighting shots. A note about coloration: In fluorescent lights, these crystals look more amber-brown than in halogen lights, where they take on a more orange-red hue. When backlit moderately, as shown, they take on a nice red glowing color. These were found at the classic old French locality for rare earth species, in the late 1970s, and had until around 2010 been hidden away by the collector. For sheer quality and beauty, many collectors have long considered the gemmy rare earth crystals from here to be among the best of their species. The productive specimen zone at the locality is, I am told reliably, simply mined out and gone now. The first photo is taken in LED lighting, as is the video. The other photos (by Joe Budd) were taken in standard camera halogen lighting (ten years ago - but we remembered this piece and were able to find them in archives!).