Uraninite, Almandine Garnet: Leiper’s Lower Avondale Quarry, Swarthmore, Delaware County, Pennsylvania

Description

Species: Uraninite, Almandine Garnet

Locality: Leiper’s Lower Avondale Quarry, Swarthmore, Delaware County, Pennsylvania

Dimensions: 4.8 x 5.1 x 5.3 cm. (166 grams)

Ex. Chet Lemanski Collection, Lincoln Sherk Collection

Extremely rare, significant (for the locality) specimen featuring a sharp, ~8 mm. wide well-formed black uraninite crystal in a typical pegmatite matrix with gemmy red almandine garnet crystals from a classic and ancient east coast locality: Lieper’s Quarry near Philadelphia. I have never seen this combination from this locality, not even in the Carnegie museum, and this is a real “hen’s tooth” specimen for the serious collector of radiaoctives! Measures ~45,000 CPM on my Ludlum Model 3 Counter with the 44-9 probe. Rare!