Schallerite

A fine example of type II schallerite in a matrix of altered, high-grade, granular franklinite-willemite ore with minor calcite. The schallerite is part of a layered vein. From right to left as photographed, the vein contains a layer 1.3 cm thick of reddish-brown schallerite augen thinly scattered in a matrix of pink rhodonite, passing rather abruptly into a layer in which the augen are so crowded together that little rhodonite is visible, and then grading into massive brown schallerite. The specimen at one time was no. 359 in the collection of Richard Hauck, then residing in Bloomfield, New Jersey, and later was purchased, along with the rest of the Hauck collection, by Steven Phillips. Subsequently it was purchased by Mark Leger and then passed to his three daughters upon Mark’s untimely death in 2021. This is one of 12 specimens donated by Danielle, Donna, and Dana Leger to the Franklin Mineral Museum in Mark’s memory and is now (2023) on public display in Baum Hall. In decades past, this specimen (catalog no. FMM-2773) was regarded as friedelite, but a handwritten note accompanying the piece later corrected the ID to schallerite "as seen at the Franklin mineral show, 1980."

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