Massive, red to brownish-red vein schallerite in contact with gneissic, granular willemite-franklinite ore. The vein intersects the gneissic layering of the ore nearly at right angles, as noted for five additional samples analyzed by Dunn et al. (1981), who viewed this feature as evidence of a “very localized occurrence” of the mineral. This specimen, a splendid example of type I schallerite, formerly was part of the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (their no. 20249) and in 2008 passed to the Franklin Mineral Museum, where it is housed as specimen FMM-3030. The schallerite (both the red and brown material) was confirmed both by Raman spectroscopy and XRF analysis and is probably from the original find of this mineral in 1924.
Identifier: SCH3c Locality: Franklin mine, Franklin Specimen size: 8 x 5 x 4.5 cm Photo credit: Richard Schnurr (Fox Tail Images)