Coronadite- Defense Mine, Lookout Mining District, Inyo County, California

Coronadite
Defense Mine, Lookout Mining District, Inyo County, California
Dimensions: 5.3 x 5.0 x 2.7 cm
Ex. W. Scott Lewis* collection

Comes with 2 original old tags. 

A substantial, old-locality example of coronadite, presenting as dense steel-gray to nearly black manganese-oxide mineralization with scattered rusty red-brown alteration and small pale veinlets breaking through the darker matrix. Much of the surface has a subdued metallic to submetallic sheen, while other areas are more matte and earthy.

That provenance is the strength of this example. The Defense Mine, near the historic mining settlement of Lookout City in California's Argus Range, was discovered in 1885 and developed as a lead-silver deposit with additional gold, zinc and copper.

* Provenance Note: W. Scott Lewis was an early Southern California mineral collector and dealer active by the 1910s and involved in the formative years of organized mineral collecting in the United States. He served as secretary of the Mineral Collectors Association and later as an associate editor of The American Mineralogist, while remaining active in California mineral circles for decades.