UV Lights and Fluorescent Minerals - a fun side hobby to metal detecting !

[KingTotsalot]

One of KT's online favorite dealers has a great selection of specimens from the Long Lake Zn Mines, Parham, Olden Township, Frontenac County, Ontario, Canada. Since He realized that His Majesty would likely never visit this site, KT asked him to please put me together a selection of miniature specimens displaying various textures of fluorescent minerals from that site and he did! The following minerals are present that fluoresce in the calcitic marble: Calcite – pastel red, Chondrodite – yellow, Diopside – blue, and Aragonite – blue white.

In a previous post in this thread, KT documented a bit of the mining history and geology of the location so no need to rehash here! Yesterday His Majesty received His Royal order and there are a dozen or so specimens to document, so here are the first three, labeled 01, 02, and 03, respectively. Please note that concerning the bright yellow color of specimen02 in the LW image, that the Royal digital camera photometer was overcome by the strong red response. KT assures everyone that the specimen is bright red to the naked eye!

Each specimen has a US dime for scale. You will note the first specimen is actually closer to a thumbnail sized piece, than a miniature, but it has decent fluorescence. There is no need to recount the photo sequence as you know by now what I do….KT's general order on these specimen photographs is natural light, SW 254nm, and if interesting, LW 365nm. Generally these pieces have a pastel look to them when viewing with the naked eye in UV any wavelength.

His Majesty will keep this collection together in a separate box. Here we go, enjoy the pictures!

 

[KingTotsalot]

Three more specimens from the Long Lake Zn Mine in Canada. These are true miniatures....04 and 05 look similar in natural light to the previous 3 examples(above), but show somewhat different textures of mineralization. And 06 is the odd man out....different looking than the rest of the specimens in the box....and a bit different responses in SW and LW beams. KT has sent picture set 06 off to my seller to get his thoughts on it and His Majesty will let you know what he has to say.

The SW pictures were taken with 3 SW units used....11 watt hanging at 45 degree angle off The Royal tripod, the 4 watt triple around 3 o'clock and the 4 watt 120 volt unit at around 9 o'clock, so that all of the specimen was receiving SW UV light. The LW images were taken with the UV Beast at about 4 feet from the given specimen!

Anyway, here they are for your viewing pleasure!

 

[KingTotsalot]

Yep, Here are 3 additional miniatures. His Majesty thinketh the seller did a nice job for KT of picking out a variety of patterns. Remember in SW calcite is weak red, Chondrodite is yellow (usually small spots or zones of spots), Diopside is blue (usually small spots or zones of spots) and Aragonite is streaks of white in thin veins. In LW calcite is a weak red, Chondrodite and Diopside have very little response, and Aragonite is brilliantly white, usually as streaks of thin veins.

Enjoy the pictures! HA HA KT still has several left to post after these!

Today the weatherman was calling for heavy weather, large hail, lightning and T-storms starting at around 5 pm around the Castle, but they missed on the timing, it all started about 6 pm. And no hail, just some rounds of heavy rain and some Thunderboomers. Glad it was not worse....KT and the Royal Prince ate out at our favorite Chinese restaurant tonight, and we got home before it all started. The Queen was off at Pine Bluff giving a lecture about the 2024 Great Eclipse that will be through here in about a year, and she managed to get back to the Castle also before it started! It is now after 8:40 pm and it has all blown over and gone!

 

[KingTotsalot]

Ok, so here are specimens 10 & 11 in this series on the Long Lake Zinc Mine minerals, 3 pictures of each…..natural light, SW 254nm, and LW 365nm.

Just on passing, the red one sees in the LW images is not an illusion, but a very dull or weak red background. The no. 10 specimen shows no visible banding under natural light, even with magnification. It would take a thin section and crossed nichols to see the pattern of banding composed by the individual mineral grains. But under either SW or LW, the banding is quite apparent.

When dealing with specimen no. 11 in UV light, the SW 254nm image shows what collectors have called the classic “starry night” pattern with a dark bluish background, due to the lack of response by the calcite to that wavelength, but in the LW 365nm image, the same pattern is present, but on a dull red field or background….the calcite response is weak but obvious when comparing the two images.

Enjoy the pictures. KT has 2 additional specimens to photograph to finish up the series on this location. Perhaps now, His Majesty might purchase some that show even stronger patterns now that there are comparison examples!

 

[KingTotsalot]

Well, this post is the last of the posts concerning fluorescent minerals from Long Lake Zn Mine in Canada....not much else to say except there is a US quarter for scale in these photos.

Enjoy!

 

[KingTotsalot]

Now to something different and a bit closer to the Royal Castle! Arkansas snowball geodes are not too uncommon across northern Arkansas, and most contain an interior coating of clear drusy quartz crystals. However, these two specimens, loaned to KT by a fellow collector, are lined with smoky quartz crystals....and fluoresce in LW 365nm! My Royal Friend spent a lot of time cleaning these specimens because they were coated with a thick coating of iron oxide-bound clay, and he did a fine job! You will note that they are larger in size, requiring a US half dollar for scale. These are pieces of two different geodes, the first picture of the pair of images displaying the natural light appearance of the exterior of the geodes, and the second picture showing the exterior fluorescing! The second pair of pictures show in the same sequence the interior quartz, first in natural light and then fluorescing orangish brown in LW 365nm light. No fluorescence was noted in SW 254nm.

Unfortunately, after all his efforts to clean the specimens, he wrapped them in paper towels for packing to loan to me. NEVER do that! That fibrous paper is highly fluorescent in LW and sheds like a long haired dog. HIs Majesty did what He could to blow off the fibers with a high pressure air gun, but alas, KT could not remove all of them! They are all the highly fluorescent blue spots!

Enjoy these unusual pictures!

 

[KingTotsalot]

The first specimen today consists of Calcurmolite from the Kyzlsai Mo-U deposit, Chu-Ill Mountains, Almaty Province, Kazakhstan, and is shown at 50X in the first natural light image….the mineral is yellow. The second image is also 50X and shows the typical Uranium mineral response to LW 365nm light.


By now, I suspect most of us, even those just casually interested in fluorescent minerals, understand that the zinc mines at Franklin, New Jersey, have produced from the tailings and mine waste, some of the most spectacular fluorescent specimens seen on planet Earth, only rivaled by one or two localities in Europe for both the variety of minerals, both fluorescent and non-fluorescent. Books have been written and now studied about the minerals.

What KT has for you today as the second specimen is another addition to my Royal Fluorescent Mineral collection...a miniature and another "old gray rock". The two predominant minerals are willemite and calcite, and the more unusual mineral is hydrozincite. The predominant minerals make up the bulk of the sample, and the hydrozincite is seen as a thin gray film on what I call the reverse side of the specimen...this coating is ~ 0.3 mm thick and is where the thin veinlet split open on that face of the specimen. In these photographs, in SW the calcite is red-orange, willemite is green, and hydrozincite is blue. Whereas in LW, the calcite is a subdued red, willemite is still green, and the hydrozincite is a bluish white.

The first photo of this specimen is in natural light with a US dime for scale. The second photo is the same view in SW 254nm, and the third photo is the same view in LW 365nm. I then flipped the specimen over to show the veinlet film in the fourth image (again natural light), then in SW 254nm, and finally LW 365nm.

Though a small specimen, this piece packs a mighty fluorescent punch! Enjoy!

 

[KingTotsalot]

Here is another interesting specimen for the Royal Collection from Sterling Hill Mine, Ogdensburg, Sussex Co., N.J.

The specimen is an ~2”X 2” sample, about 1” thick. US Dime for scale. The first image is in natural light, the 2nd in SW 254nm and the 3rd in LW 365nm. What is very subtle in the natural light picture is the breccia texture of the rock. Calcite was shattered and the infilling vein material is Rhodonite, pinkish to light purple. Once you see the texture in either SW or LW UV, it becomes a little more obvious in the natural light image. The Rhodonite is not fluorescent, so that also helps the texture pop out a bit more in UV. You can readily tell the LW image from the SW one, simply by spotting the blue cotton dust on the LW image of the specimen! HA HA

Anyway, enjoy the photos! Soon there will be more on the way!

 

[KingTotsalot]

KT had to wait a while for this specimen to arrive from Germany, but it finally was in the Royal Mailbox today! This mineral, Phosphuranylite, is named after the chemicals it contains...K and U. The location is lengthy....Christa Mine, Grobschloppen, Kirschelamitz, Wunsiedel im Fictelgebirge, Upper Franconia, Bavaria, Germany. KT had to shorten that location name or the pictures would not have uploaded!

The pictures were taken with KT's Chinese USB led Royal Microscope at 25X. You will note that the first image does not look like the same view as the 2nd image....that is because it is not! Apparently the specimen, while under the scope, got bumped before matching images were obtained. Oh, well, one can still see that the mineral in natural light is yellow, and in LW 365nm is a nice bright green! Another specimen added to the Royal Fluorescent Mineral Collection!

Enjoy the pictures!

 

[KingTotsalot]

Due to uncontrolled circumstances, KT did not get to go to the Memphis Show today, but that is ok because He has so many fluorescent specimens to work up and send out info on that His Majesty will stay busy today!

This specimen is rather an interesting one. It contains blue Afghanite crystal masses with rims of sodalite set in a calcite and aragonite(?) matrix. The textures of the sample are such that KT included pictures of both surfaces of the piece. So there are 6 images.

The first three are in natural light, LW 365nm and SW 254nm, respectively. A US dime is for scale. In picture 1, the Afghanite is the dark blue crystals and masses, sitting in a light colored matrix. In picture 2, the Afghanite (not fluorescent) is rimmed by thin coatings of bright orange sodalite, surrounded by dark reddish calcite and light blue spotty aragonite. Within the Afghanite is a bright yellow fluorescing anastomosing mass of Wernerite (Scapolite Group), so bright it is almost white. All of this is seen in LW 365nm. Picture 3 is in SW 254nm and the red calcite matrix with a few spots of blue-white aragonite are clearly visible.

Starting with picture 4, the opposite side of the specimen displays large blue Afghanite crystals in a gray white matrix. Picture 5, taken in LW 365nm, also clearly shows fluorescing orange sodalite rimming the non-fluorescent Afghanite crystals and a dark red fluorescent calcite matrix with spotty whitish blue aragonite. Finally picture 6, taken in SW 254nm, shows the red calcite matrix and a few spots of fluorescing blue white aragonite.

It appears that the sodalite formed as reaction rims on the Afghanite while the carbonate matrix was forming. In previous specimens of Afghanite in His Majesty's Royal Collection, this relationship was not visible.

Enjoy the pictures. The texture of this specimen is certainly interesting, at least to KT! The difference in LW and SW images almost look like a different rock!!

 

[KingTotsalot]

Two different specimens, the first from Italy and the second from Afghanistan!

The first specimen is an example of Ferrierite-(Mg) in a carbonate matrix from Ferrierite-(Mg) with calcite and aragonite, Mount Oladri Qys., Monastir, S. Sardinia Prov, Sardinia, Italy. A US dime for scale. The first picture is in natural light. The Ferrierite is present as a dark sphere on the left edge of the specimen and a series of orange fibers on the right edge of the sample. The second picture is in LW 365nm and displays a couple of small dark reddish spots of calcite with most of the matrix being blue and white responding aragonite. The third picture is in SW 254nm and shows a few more distinct spots of red calcite and some patches of the aragonite also responding, but not like in LW.

The second specimen is green and white Sodalite with calcite from Sar-e-sang District, Badakahshan Province, Afghanistan. The piece was a rather odd shape when received with a large pinnacle of matrix extending off the back of the specimen. An attempt was made to trim the piece and unfortunately it broke into 3 pieces right across the fluorescent portion of the specimen. Judicious use of Gorilla glue and two rubber bands were required to reassemble the piece last night. Still, quite a bit of the waste matrix was removed in the process. Anyway, the first picture is in natural light, US dime for scale. The second picture is in LW 365nm and the sodalite fluoresces a nice bright orange, with the calcite having a whitish response. The third picture is in SW 254nm and the calcite shows a pink response in a couple of spots. Still a keeper. KT had to prop the piece up in a plastic lid to properly photograph it, so please excuse the fluorescent blue box!

 

[KingTotsalot]

This is the first fluorescent specimen KT ever purchased from Australia. It is supposedly from the Puttapa Mine, but when looking this site up on Mindat.org, KT finds it to likely be one of three mines in the Puttapa District (given below) So His Majesty wrote the dealer and asked him a few questions. Below are his answers:

“Puttapa Zinc mine is correct according to the Australian importer (Graham Fraser). Other pits / deposits in the area are Beltana, Aroona, and Third Plain.” With that info, KT does not know who to believe, the dealers importer or Mindat.org!

Also, the dealer was vague in his eBay description of the specimen, so KT asked him the following questions:
What is the blue white mineral in SW that is brilliant yellow in LW? His answer: Willemite.
What is the carbonate mineral that fluoresces red in SW and not at all in LW. His answer: possibly dolomite or calcite. Due to its fairly slow effervescence in dilute HCl, KT thinketh it is likely dolomite.

The seller also added that numerous unidentified minerals are also present in materials from there that also fluoresce. A few web pages have references like https://www.naturesrainbows.com/post/willemite-and-calcite-puttapa-zinc-mine-australia .

One of the fluorescent breakdowns is as follows: Response to Shortwave – Willemite (green, cream, long phosphorescence), Calcite (orange red), Dolomite (deep red deep magenta), Aragonite (white), Smithsonite (mauve),and Barite (yellow to blue white). Response to Longwave – some calcite and dolomite is very bright (red).

The eBay seller did not even have the courtesy to send a label! His Majesty is guessing he was hesitant to make the calls on what minerals were contained in it, but at least he did reply to my Royal questions. So here is the final Royal label on this specimen: Dolomite & Willemite, Puttapa Zinc Mine, Leigh Creek, N. Flinders Ranges, S. Australia, Australia.

First picture is in natural light, second picture is in SW 254nm and the 3rd image is in LW 365nm. US dime for scale in all pictures.

Enjoy!

 

[KingTotsalot]

Two specimens to discuss today!

The first is a classic “free floater” selenite crystal, a variety of Gypsum from the well known Willow Creek site, Chain Lakes near Nanton, Alberta, Canada. A water-clear well formed single crystal with the common habit and form from this location. US dime for scale; it is about 7/8ths inch measured in the longest direction. These crystals are well known for their nice Long and Short Wave fluorescence, displaying a nice hour-glass pattern of fluorescence. Although the specimen is equally the same color and intensity in either UV wavelength, KT chose the LW response to show you as it was a bit better focused. In SW, the hour glass pattern has nice phosphorescence of the same color too! Picture 1 is in natural light, whereas Picture 2 is LW 365nm.

The second specimen is a nice sharp, double-terminated, single hexagonal crystal of fluorapatite from the Skardu area, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. Although small, it shows its pink color nicely in the third, natural light, picture. Again a US Dime for scale. The fourth picture is slightly out of focus but shows the C pinacoidal termination well and is in SW 254nm. Three UV SW lamps were used, 1 at 3 o’clock, 1 at 6 o’clock and 1 at 9 o’clock, total of 19 watts, distance from 4 to 6 inches from the specimen. The fifth picture was taken with the UVBeast LW 365nm at 3 feet from the crystal.

Enjoy these pictures!

 

[GKL]

Catching up on your new specimen posts, neat KT, the deep red ones stand out well, and the multi-color ones are always a treat to look at, but the other specimens have neat aspects to them also, appreciate the info you include about them, readers get to learn something in addition to seeing some very interesting pics !

I was wondering that with your history in the field of geology if maybe as a kid you ate "rock candy"

If you did I sure hope you didn't mix up the rock candy with any specimens you collected back then

Hey, maybe they should make a UV reactive fluorescent version of rock candy !

with your interest with UV reactive minerals maybe you might try this candy they made UV reactive

maybe even some of the glow in the dark candy like this

Hope you don't mind the humor, it's all just in fun !

 

[KingTotsalot]

KT enjoys reading your humorous posts and comments, Gary! Keep em coming!

Here is an inexpensive columnar calcite specimen from China. But the location is mysterious!

The original eBay seller (in China) listed the site at Huanggang, Inner Mongolia, China. So I tried looking that up on Mindat.org. Turns out there is a Huanggang mine in Chifeng Prefecture, in inner Mongolia, China. So I decide to look at some pictures of minerals from that mine….ut oh, it turns out this a a famous producing locality at this time, but little calcite is reported as being saved! And none have this columnar habit. So I am looking elsewhere and find a Mineralogical Record article posted on the internet on the site, so I look through it and at the pictures….no columnal calcite! Ut OH! Now what….so I search with Google for columnal calcite from China, find lots of pictures, posted by dealers, and two more locations raise their heads...Sanming City Prefecture, Fujian Province and Lonyan Prefecture, Fujian Province, China. Not narrowing it down very much, am I ??

The columnal growth of calcite is actually an oriented overgrowth of calcite on dark scalenohedral calcite. The tips seen sticking out of the incomplete hexagonal growth on the terminations of many of the crystals. So I fell back to another specimen I have in my collection, same habit, same coloration, and same fluorescence. It is labeled Sanming City Prefecture, Fujian Province, China. I looked up this area on Wikipedia and found that this is basically a politically derived area consisting of at least a half dozen states. No information available on what is produced in each of the states, but mining does occur in Sanming Prefecture. So my label reads: Calcite, columnal, Sanming City Prefecture, Fujian Province, China.

From discussions on Mindat.org and other sources, it appears that these sites are kept secret by both the collectors and dealers….after all, if you are selling minerals and there are many other dealers and miners wanting to know where your specimens come from, if you tell, then the competition swoops in and cleans out your site or sources! This is true right here in the USA for new locations...but eventually someone goofs up and blurts out the real site and it finally gets into the literature. And yes, I do this myself, being particularly vague about a locality, especially if I am the one who discovered it!

Anyway, the first picture is in natural light, a US dime for scale. The second picture is in LW 365nm. Some of these specimens have a pink response to SW 254nm, but this specimen has only one crystal that shows a weak pink response, so I did not bother to photograph it.

 

[KingTotsalot]

Here are 3 of today’s arrivals in the Royal Mailbox!

The first specimen is Opal (AN), variety Hyaline from Venero Quarry, Cadalso de los Vidrios, Madrid Province, Spain. Opal is almost always a very late stage mineraloid, coating earlier formed minerals in open pockets no matter where it is found. Likely deposited by silica-rich groundwater seeping through open fractures and cracks. It fluoresces green in both LW and SW UV, due to traces of Uranium; very little opal has no fluorescence, but some Mexican fire opal does not, as well as precious opal from Australia. Common opal, however, almost always does. A US dime is in all photographs as a scale.
Picture 1 is in natural light, Picture 2 is in SW 254nm, and picture 3 is in LW 365nm.

The second specimen is Hydrozincite from the Goodsprings Mining District, Goodsprings, Clark County, Nevada. There are over 30 mines and prospects in that mining district, and the specimen came without a specific mine given as the source. Likely picked up off a mine dump at night. Picture 4 is in natural light, and Picture 5 is in SW 254nm.

The third and final specimen of this group is Tremolite crystals in marble from the Nellie Ulmer Marble Quarry, NW of Rockland, Knox Co., Maine. There are several interesting photographs of this quarry, one being a postcard taking in the teens of last Century. KT has a few postcards of Arkansas mines….Bauxite, North Arkansas zinc mills & mines, and the Magnet Cove Barite Pit, dating from as early as the 1920s through the middle 1950s. Always interesting! The 6th picture is in natural light and the 7th picture is in SW 254nm. They say that tremolite is a prickly mineral and darned if His Majesty did not get a fiber of it stuck in HIs Royal right thumb, below the skin!

Today was a rainy, overcast, coolish, kind of a blue hazy day, so the last two minerals fit right in with the mood! HA HA

Enjoy the pictures!

 

[GKL]

KT enjoys reading your humorous posts and comments, Gary! Keep em coming!

Here is an inexpensive columnar calcite specimen from China. But the location is mysterious!

The original eBay seller (in China) listed the site at Huanggang, Inner Mongolia, China. So I tried looking that up on Mindat.org. Turns out there is a Huanggang mine in Chifeng Prefecture, in inner Mongolia, China. So I decide to look at some pictures of minerals from that mine….ut oh, it turns out this a a famous producing locality at this time, but little calcite is reported as being saved! And none have this columnar habit. So I am looking elsewhere and find a Mineralogical Record article posted on the internet on the site, so I look through it and at the pictures….no columnal calcite! Ut OH! Now what….so I search with Google for columnal calcite from China, find lots of pictures, posted by dealers, and two more locations raise their heads...Sanming City Prefecture, Fujian Province and Lonyan Prefecture, Fujian Province, China. Not narrowing it down very much, am I ??

The columnal growth of calcite is actually an oriented overgrowth of calcite on dark scalenohedral calcite. The tips seen sticking out of the incomplete hexagonal growth on the terminations of many of the crystals. So I fell back to another specimen I have in my collection, same habit, same coloration, and same fluorescence. It is labeled Sanming City Prefecture, Fujian Province, China. I looked up this area on Wikipedia and found that this is basically a politically derived area consisting of at least a half dozen states. No information available on what is produced in each of the states, but mining does occur in Sanming Prefecture. So my label reads: Calcite, columnal, Sanming City Prefecture, Fujian Province, China.

From discussions on Mindat.org and other sources, it appears that these sites are kept secret by both the collectors and dealers….after all, if you are selling minerals and there are many other dealers and miners wanting to know where your specimens come from, if you tell, then the competition swoops in and cleans out your site or sources! This is true right here in the USA for new locations...but eventually someone goofs up and blurts out the real site and it finally gets into the literature. And yes, I do this myself, being particularly vague about a locality, especially if I am the one who discovered it!

Anyway, the first picture is in natural light, a US dime for scale. The second picture is in LW 365nm. Some of these specimens have a pink response to SW 254nm, but this specimen has only one crystal that shows a weak pink response, so I did not bother to photograph it.View attachment 578442

Neat looking specimen just from the physical structure itself, the UV response is a nice addition !!!!

Good point about them keeping exact locations where specimens are found a secret, as far as in the U.S. maybe limit it to just sharing the zip code

 

[KingTotsalot]

These 2 micromount specimens arrived yesterday, but KT was busy photographing other specimens and now this effort will catch His Majesty up!

The first pair of pictures are of Thaumasite, a calcium silicate mineral that often occurs with zeolites. Barwood, unpublished data, noted its occurrence in the Granite Mountain Complex of central Arkansas, but unfortunately His Majesty never got to see the specimen. Thaumasite does weakly fluoresce white in LW 365nm. These two pictures were taken with KT's Royal Chinese USB led microscope at 10X. The sample is from Crestmore Qys., Crestmore, Riverside County, California. From Mindat.org, KT learned that there are 3 named quarries, but unfortunately the given label just said “Crestmore quarries”, so no way for Him to know which one. The first image is in natural light and the second in LW 365nm. The mineral fluoresces both whitish and yellowish and is a thin film on the rock, likely a broken veinlet face.

The second pair of photos is of Sandbornite from the Madrelena Mine, Tres Pozos, Baja, Mexico. The mineral occurs as thin streaks and stringers in gray non-fluorescent calcite marble. This locality is listed by Mindat.org. Sanbornite is a calcium boron bearing mineral, first identified in 1938. The actual mineral cannot be readily seen in the first natural light photograph, but shows up with white to cream fluorescent stringers in LW 365nm.

Enjoy the pictures!

 

[KingTotsalot]

This arrived in the Royal Mail today! It is a Manganocalcite slab from the Pribram District, Central Bohemian Region, Czech Republic. The label actually stated just Pribram, Czech Republic, but KT was able to get the additional label information from Mindat.org. Unfortunately there are a number of mines in the Pribram District so that is as far as He could go. His Majesty sure wishes people would pay more attention to actual locations! A lot of manganocalcite is coming out of China now as polished pieces, tumbled or lapidary worked, but the colors are more fluorescent pink than orange. KT is excited to get this fluorescent specimen from another, well-known, eastern European country to add to the Royal Collection!

Anyway, the first picture of this slab is in natural light, note the zoning and banding. US quarter for scale. The second picture was taken using one SW 254nm 4 watt lamp at 3 o’clock. The third picture was taken using 2 4 watt SW lamps, one at 3 o’clock and the other at 9 o’clock. Note the change in appearance, which His Majesty simply takes to be a stronger color saturation, not actually a different color. The fourth picture is in LW 365nm and shows a strong textural difference across the specimen due to both zoning and banding.

Enjoy!

 

[GKL]

This arrived in the Royal Mail today! It is a Manganocalcite slab from the Pribram District, Central Bohemian Region, Czech Republic. The label actually stated just Pribram, Czech Republic, but KT was able to get the additional label information from Mindat.org. Unfortunately there are a number of mines in the Pribram District so that is as far as He could go. His Majesty sure wishes people would pay more attention to actual locations! A lot of manganocalcite is coming out of China now as polished pieces, tumbled or lapidary worked, but the colors are more fluorescent pink than orange. KT is excited to get this fluorescent specimen from another, well-known, eastern European country to add to the Royal Collection!

Anyway, the first picture of this slab is in natural light, note the zoning and banding. US quarter for scale. The second picture was taken using one SW 254nm 4 watt lamp at 3 o’clock. The third picture was taken using 2 4 watt SW lamps, one at 3 o’clock and the other at 9 o’clock. Note the change in appearance, which His Majesty simply takes to be a stronger color saturation, not actually a different color. The fourth picture is in LW 365nm and shows a strong textural difference across the specimen due to both zoning and banding.

Enjoy!

Neat KT, just maybe you might eventually get close to having a specimen from most of the countries in the world