Silver with Safflorite and Calcite (ex Durkos, Hauck, Lemanski Collections)

Item Description

A really classic and aesthetic older specimen from the Castle Mine in Ontario featuring beautiful repeating dendritic growths of Native Silver which are coated by grey Safflorite sitting on massive grey to pink colored Calcite matrix. If you look closely, you can see a few spots of Native Silver which are a bright silvery-white hue (not coated). The piece is crystallized on all sides, and is an absolute joy to view under magnification! A really cool and interesting specimen with a wonderful crystal form. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #0094CL. The piece was obtained from Bob Hauck who brought it back from Canada in 1991 (he got the incredible best-ever Cobalt-area silver collection of John Durkos at that time). Hauck himself was a silver collector. So this is a fine Canadian silver with excellent pedigree! 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.