Home > Franklin & Sterling Hill – March 26 > MS1036 Cahnite with Rhodonite

Cahnite with Rhodonite - Sold


This specimen is an attractive combination of resinous white granular cahnite and vitreous pink rhodonite blades. The largest cahnite grain is 7 mm across, and essentially anhedral. There are very few crystal faces present for the white cahnite. Nevertheless, it is a rich specimen from the type locality.

Cahnite is a great rarity originally discovered at Franklin. The mineral name honors mineral collector and dealer Lazard Cahn (1865-1940) of Colorado Springs (Palache & Bauer 1927). Cahnite is a calcium borate arsenate with unusual 4 symmetry (Prewitt & Buerger, 1961).

This specimen was part of the personal collection of Ralph Merrill, proprietor of the prolific mail order business Minerals Unlimited. Ralph obtained this specimen from Clifford Frondel in 1947. Although this specimen came labeled hedyphane, Raman spectroscopy clearly identified the mineral as cahnite. A copy of the spectrograph accompanies the specimen. Merrill's collection card and label also ship with the specimen.