Fluorite

A delightful cabinet specimen of translucent, mid blackberry purple Fluorite crystals from the Purple Rain Pocket in Lady Annabella mine, Eastgate, Weardale, County Durham, England.  The Fluorite forms as both equant and elongated prisms, commonly as interpenetrant twins and rarely as single crystals covering an ironstone matrix.  The largest Fluorite prism measures to 1.9 cm.  All prisms display cross-diagonal growth patterns which have been naturally etched to produce a diamond-chequered harlequin pattern.  The prisms tend to be waxy with a dull lustre.  The Fluorite displays intense daylight fluorescence and are all a uniform white lavender under LWUV.  Most of the base and the back of the matrix has been sawn, so creating flat faces, invisible when displayed.