SOLD
RARE08-2-93
Gerstleyite
Baker mine, U.S. Borax Mine, Boron, Kramer District, Kern Co., California (TYPE LOCALITY)
Miniature, 4.0 x 3.0 x 2.0 cm
SOLD

Gerstleyite is an extremely rare sulfosalt, in fact I'd warrant so rare on the market that most people, even diehard sulfide lovers, have never seen one. This was the first known sodium sulfosalt according to Mindat.org. This specimen is from the original find and the original collector as reported to me on the label from the previous owner (see below - I trust his sourcing on that information). It is a textbook nodule of crystallized gerstleyite in matrix from this boron open pit mine, collected by a man named Vincent Morgan in 1954. From him, it was sold to a friend who is a very well known collector of rare sulfides and sulfosalts, now a professor of mineralogy himself, Frank Keutsch. He told me this is one of a few he obtained long ago. Certainly, this is a good one, and is the best I know of around the market - well, its the ONLY one I know of on the market since I first heard of it a decade ago, put it that way.