Aquamarine, Quartz, Muscovite and Apatite on Albite

Item Description

When it comes to Aquamarine, Pakistan is the most productive country for specimens in the modern age of mineral collecting. Some of the very finest quality Aquamarine specimens come from the various pegmatites in the Pakistani Himalayas, especially the pieces from around Shigar. This area has produced some of the most exciting Aquamarine specimens in recent years. This specimen features a very good quality, sharp, lustrous, GEM quality, soft blue color prismatic crystal measuring 5.3 cm aesthetically perched atop snow white Albite matrix. The top of the Aquamarine crystal hosts fine, sharp, lustrous, gemmy, colorless Quartz crystals (some of which are actually doubly-terminated!) along with beautiful white Albite (var: Cleavelandite) "rosettes". If you look around the matrix, you can see attractive silvery-golden colored Muscovite blades. There are small, thin black crystals of an unknown mineral - possibly Schorl or Rutile (?) that can be see on and included within the Aquamarine crystal. Lastly, there are some very pale pink Fluorapatite crystals on the specimen (best seen in the UV photo as they show brilliant yellow fluorescence). A very attractive display specimen with great aesthetics and from this most pretigious of Pakistani pegmatite localities. Eye-catching and better in person. Valued at $1,800.