International Minerals #27

Lustrous, sharp, almost gemmy spessartine crystals of intense red-orange color set on snowy white orthoclase. What a great and colorful combination! Right in the center a large free-standing muscovite crystal sets a nice contrast, a few further ones are scattered all over. In excellent condition and shape.

So this is really an amazing specimen - a large, free-standing and complete star-formed Cerussite in good transparency. One photo was done under daylight, the other one with moderate backlight to show the internal brown-yellow color. The terminations of all these uncountable faces and edges are sharp and well-formed lines, the front faces are very glossy. The specimen is well developed all around! Ex Heinrich Prager collection.

Intense orange-yellow fan-shaped mimetite crystals with sparkling faces on a well balanced matrix, a little green spot of malachite sets a lovely contrast. A really nice sample in excellent quality!

The specimen features a huge, well exposed main crystal framed with several smaller ones. The termination is very sharp, all faces are glossy and the crystal shows a good contrast to matrix. No significant damages to report.

The light green, twinned fluorite crystals show some lustrous and some waxy faces, their termination is sharp and they are partly transparent. They formed a very 3-dimensional cluster which looks very aesthetic set on the small base of galena crystals. Ex Heinrich Prager collection.

Lustrous amber-colored calcite crystals perched on thin, elongated amethyste crystals. Please note that this is very rare combination of colors and shapes, which is of high relevance for the locality. No significant damages to report.

A sharply terminated, lustrous crystal - 45mm across - attractively set on quartz. Isolated crystals like the particular one are very uncommon and hard to obtain. The specimen looks great in various positions!

This isolated light blue fluorite crystal measures 49 mm across, it shows stepped faces - all of them highly lustrous. Along the edges there is also just a touch of lovely lavender color. The matrix is covered with small quartz crystals, one larger quartz crystal is set at the top of the piece, minor dolomite is also present.

This well known classic locality is named in honor to the deceased wife of the claim owner Ray DeMark, who is a famous field-collector. The specimen shows dark purple octahedral Fluorite crystals set on snowy white matrix. The crystals are up to 19 mm across, they show satiny luster and this incredible concentration of color. the left photo was done under daylight, the right one with moderate back-light. Ex Heinrich Prager collection.

Two completely free-standing and well exposed dioptase crystals up to 20 mm set on white calcite. The crystals show fantastic luster and this wonerful, intense and glowing green color. The contrast to calcite is pure eye-candy, minor duftite is also present. Great aesthetics and condition.

Several isolated sphalerite crystals up to 34 mm across on drusy milky quartz crystals. Just the largest sphalerite crystal has too much volume to be translucent, all others expose this spectacular orange-red color when backlit. In fine condition damage-wise!

How did that locality get its name? ... to remove grass, mud and earth from the fluorite-bearing rock the miners used water in high-pressure hose. This mining method is called "hush-mining". The owner of the mine was Mister Frazer - and so the name of this famous mine was born: Frazers Hush. The locality is famous for the most crazy day-light fluorescence you can imagine, even for northern England this material stands out the crowd! The crystals show violet color, which looks like neon-purple under daylight, the particular specimen shows twinned crystals up to 18mm, all sharp terminated and highly lustrous. Just a few minor imperfections are present, but most crystals are in very fine condition.