Good Tourmaline crystals from the Pala Chief Mine are rare on the market and the locality has limited access anyways, since it is on the Pala Indian Reservation and difficult to mine. The shocking purple color is also strange for San Diego County material! This colorful, nearly 4-inch, translucent to transparent crystal has a rich purple core with a blue jacket all the up to and on the flat, perfectly formed termination. It has an incredibly glassy luster and striations parallel to its length. The elegant crystal also has several smaller, slender crystals in tight, ever so slightly divergent near parallel growth that are also nicely terminated. Note that although it is not labeled as repaired, there seems a tiny crack about 3 cm up from the bottom. It is a hairline crack and could be entirely natural, or could be a ridiculously clean repair with some kind of super glue that does not fluoresce detectably to check it. Rock said it was not repaired and got it directly from his friend who found it, so it probably is not. But we should mention that hairline crack (which is not noticeable except on very close examination). Rock's note on the back of the label states that it was collected by Bob Bartsch when he was working the mine in July of 1963. Rock got the specimen when he was given Bob's collection in his living trust. http://www.mindat.org/article.php/2158/Robert+Bartsch+++RIP++1939+to+2014. Overall, history aside, a gorgeous crystal from this San Diego County pegmatite!