Nickeline (formerly Niccolite) (ex Kay Robertson Collection)

Item Description

The rare and beautiful nickel arsenide (one atom of each) Nickeline is found in many world localities, but the German specimens are among the finest examples ever found. Nickeline has actually been known since the late 1600s, orginially referred to as Kupfernickel in German (because early mineralogists thought it contained copper). In 1868 the great mineralogist, James Dwight Dana actually changed the name of the species to Niccolite after "niccolum" (the Latin word for nickel). This change actually really stuck, and you will still see many specimens on the market labeled as Niccolite (including THIS specimen!) even though Nickeline has been used for decades. This attractive thumbnail specimen is from Eisleben in the Mansfeld Basin inSaxony and features tighly interngrown semi-"rosette" like groups of bronze colored Nickeline on the display side, and even though the crystals aren't especially large, the weight of the piece indicates that it's nearly pure Nickeline throughout. This piece would make a great addition to a collection of rarities, German minerals or anybody who likes metallic species. Ex Kay Robertson Collection (#4336). Kay is a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics (see the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record and the 50+ page article in the German Magazine "Mineralien Welt" November-December 2017).