Fluorite (RARE locality specimen) (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

This lesser known dolomite-limestone quarry in Central Iowa is now closed, but at one time it operated more than 30 meters (100 feet) underground. This piece is one of the very few specimens I've seen from the locality, and reminds one of similar pieces from Clay Center, Ohio. This piece features dozens of small, sharp, lustrous, gemmy, almost "burnt" golden colored cubes of Fluorite measuring up to 2 mm on edge sitting atop white "dogtooth"-shaped crystals of Calcite on host rock matrix. If you look with a loupe, you'll see tiny metallic crystals of Marcasite which are included inside of the Calcite crystals, and there are some tiny soft pinkish colored blades of Barite that can be seen on the piece as well. If you collect worldwide Fluorites, minerals of the Midwest United States, or just oddball locality pieces, don't pass this one up, as you may never see another like on the market again. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #0595CL. Chet was born 1947 in started collecting minerals circa 1957. He worked briefly as a drill runner at the famous Sterling Mine, in Ogdensburg, New Jersey and from 1987 to 1990 he helped convert the mine into a public access mining museum. He has held the role of treasurer, vice president and president of the Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society (FOMS), and has been a board member and vice president of the Franklin Mineral Museum. The rare copper arsenate, Lemanskiite was named in his honor in 1999.