Lawrence Conklin was a mineral dealer in the Northeastern US who <u>claimed</u> to have a personal mineral collection numbering exactly 0 specimens. He insisted he HAD a collection but that he only collected complete, perfect, undamaged floater specimens: and he never saw one. I told him he should start looking at Herkimer diamonds. He agreed but I don't think he ever added a single specimen to his "collection" before he died.<BR><BR>n
That said, this double terminated ilvaite from Dal'negorsk may not be Larry's <u>perfect</u> floater, but it is darn close. I bought this piece in Dal'negorsk on one of my ten trips there in the 1990's. It formed in a pocket filled with palygorskite ("mountain leather"). With a hand lens, there is a tiny white crevice along one termination that is a contact. Other than that, this is a perfect floater. It is decorated with a few small bipyramidal quartz crystals and measures 4.5 x 2 x 1.6 cm. Double terminated ilvaites are a rarity...