A fine and rare example of the lavender-colored massive sussexite discovered at Franklin in 1927 and described by Charles Palache (1928) before similar-appearing “cherty” sussexite was found at Sterling Hill. In overall appearance this Franklin find has little in common with Sterling Hill cherty sussexite specimens except for the sussexite itself. Here sussexite is the pinkish-lavender mineral seen as layers in a vein of cherty yellow willemite, with stringers of orange zincite, on massive granular franklinite-willemite-zincite ore typical of Franklin. This example was no. 21158 in the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and was obtained by the Franklin Mineral Museum in November 2007, where it is now on display as no. FMM-7049.
Identifier: SSX20c Locality: Franklin mine, Franklin Specimen size: 11.5 x 7 x 5.5 cm Photo credit: Richard Schnurr