17 new fluorescent minerals to United States Showcase

Today I have added 17 new mineral specimens to the United States Showcase Page of my website.    

The specimens all contain very rare eucryptite crystals from the famous Foote Mine in North Carolina.  The specimens were collected in the 1960s.  It is my understanding (and I may be wrong about this), that the Foote mine has been the only locality where eucryptite crystals have been found.

About a year ago I was contacted by a well-known mineral dealer.  He told me that he had acquired a collection that included a batch of fluorescent specimens containing very rare eucryptite crystals.  Since he knew I was a fluorescent mineral dealer, he offered this batch to me first.  He knew fluorescent eucryptite crystals were very rare and would be appreciated by my customer base.  I was honored that he chose to sell this batch to me.

The eucryptite crystals range in size from approximately 1mm to 3mm.  They fluoresce under shortwave ultraviolet light with the same crimson red response as massive eucryptite.  Along with the fluorescent crimson red eucryptite is a pale blue fluorescing albite. 

Unfortunately, these specimens were very difficult to photograph.  As a result, the photography is poor.  Trying to capture the crimson red of the eucryptite was impossible.  Also, in some cases not all the blue was from the fluorescing albite.   My digital camera wanted to over emphasize the reflected blue from the UV light on the feldspar etc.  Please contact me if you have any questions about the quality of these specimens.  Since these specimens were collected so long ago, and the Foote mine has been closed for many years, this may be a once in a lifetime chance to obtain one of these specimens for your collection.