FLUORAPATITE and MUSCOVITE on SIDERITE

SPECIMEN DESCRIPTION

Panasqueira mine in Portugal is well-known as a source of fine mineral specimens, including Fluorapatite, but this large display specimen is truly exceptional. It really has everything that you could wish for in a display Fluorapatite - large, perfectly formed intensely glassy prismatic crystals; A fine and distinctive colour - a gooseberry green - with bright internal reflections; sits perfectly for display. The main cluster of Fluorapatite crystals is really special. The crystals are such good quality, and reach 2.4 cm across, but it is the aesthetics of how they form an interlocking 'spine' along the top of the specimen that really sets this piece apart from others. The matrix is massive Quartz overgrown with small rosettes of Muscovite (silvery grey) and Siderite (beige). A few 'incomplete' Fluorapatite' crystals on the front face are, when studied carefully pristine, but have grown not as perfect prisms, but with stepped edges. Ex Nick Hawes collection.