Glassy and gemmy with a lovely unique color, this uncommonly sharp triplite crystal is from the gem pegmatites in the Shigar Valley in Pakistan. It was personally brought out by dealer Herb Obodda, and kept in his personal thumbnail collection for decades until we bought it in 2008. This piece needed a special cleaning process and was set aside at the time, and has long waited for the return to me, resulting finally in a beautiful specimen that shows incredible color and luster. The color is shocking, it is not red or purple but something in between, that is hard to describe (magenta, maybe?). Triplite crystals are all too often etched into shards, or simply clunky and brownish. This is neither. It is a stone cold killer that will be seen immediately for color, sparkle, and sharpness even amongst other more fancy species in a competitive case, and has to be among the best thumbnails of the species. Herb Obodda found this, brought it home, and kept it in his personal collection, which given his decades of direct access to the people and the locations was surely overall the finest Pakistani-Afghani collection of small treasures, piece for piece.