Description

This specimen features superb sharp dodecahedral magnetite crystals from the Grace Mine. The large crystals feature the finely stepped crystal faces for which the locality is known, while some of the faces of the smaller crystals on the left side (or bottom, depending on how one chooses to orient the specimen) have only very fine stepping surface patterns. This specimen was joined to other crystals before it was extracted, and some of the crystals on it are only partial, with contact surfaces where they were joined – the crystals at each end are complete. (In the first photo, there are incomplete crystals the area that is lower in the middle of the piece and also upper middle/over the top.) The smaller crystals at the left are almost all complete and in excellent condition, as is the largest crystal at the right – these are fantastic magnetite crystals! The Grace Mine operated from the late 1940s until it closed in 1977, and the site has been fully reclaimed. These are very hard to obtain. From the John S. White Pennsylvania Collection, he originally acquired it in exchange from the collection of Miguel Romero.