Rhodochrosite on Quartz (classic Colorado material)

Item Description

Rhodochrosite from the Sunnyside mine is one of the staples of any good Colorado or Rhodochrosite collection. In my opinion, this mine is only second to the famous Sweet Home in Colorado in terms of quality and color. Actually, many of the Sunnyside Rhodos are actually GEMMY and RED inside, but they were coated by a lighter pink overgrowth during growth, so you can't see the strong color inside. This piece stands out as a fine quality, showy miniature display specimen from this historic mine. Fine quality, sharp, well-formed, striated, translucent, "flattened" rhombohedra of beautiful rose pink Rhodochrosite measuring up to 1.2 cm across are sitting on sparkling / drusy Quartz on matrix. The piece is in superb condition overall, and displays well as you can see from the photos. Virtually all of the Rhodos are undamaged, save the bottom / underside of the piece where it was removed from the pocket, though I can see a few complete Rhodos on the bottom as well. The crystals glow with color when backlit, and they look wonderful in any kind of light. It's hard to find fine quality crystals like this on Quartz on matrix from this locality, most of the time we're used to seeing single rhombs off matrix. What an attractive and very hard to find display specimen for any collector of Rhodochrosites or specimens from Colorado. Valued at $1,850 in the inventory. The piece comes with an old label from Western Minerals erroneously labeled as coming from the "American Tunnel", which never actually produced any Rhodochrosite specimens.