Gerstmannite

Radiating sprays of pale pink gerstmannite crystals on pale green willemite (visible at base of specimen), with minor white calcite and black pyrochroite.  The pinkish red mineral is the lower third of the specimen is alleghanyite.  Beneath all these minerals, along the vein wall, is a layer of brown sphalerite.  Small amounts of fibrous fluoborite are present in one small area.  The matrix is medium-grade, granular franklinite-willemite-calcite ore.  This is a celebrated specimen, one of the finest known, and is the paratype specimen described in detail by Moore and Araki (1977).  It used to be owned by Ewald Gerstmann, who obtained it from his friend Matty Dubinski in the mid-1970s.  Currently it is housed in the Franklin Mineral Museum, catalogue number FMM-1146.

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