The first time I saw one of the natrolites from this famous find in New Jersey, I could not believe my eyes. I had never seen such long and stout natrolites in my life...I didn't imagine natrolite crystals like these were even possible. Here is a quotation from mindat.org about the discovery:<BR><BR>

"A major natrolite discovery, circa 1973, at this quarry yielded white translucent to transparent crystals to 22 cm long. The pocket was exposed on the top surface of a bench. The material was extracted by underhanding. A pump was required to remove water. In 1978 the lower extension of this pocket was exposed and a smaller but significant amount of additional material was recovered. The natrolite crystals recovered from this pocket are the finest examples of the species from North America and although thousands of crystals were collected they are relatively rare on the market today. Some of the crystals were faceted and yielded flawless stones to over 10 carats. (James Zigras, 2011.)"<BR><BR>
Wow! You'd think there would be more specimens floating around, but they are actually quite difficult to find. And this is a good one. it measures 9.3 x 1.7 x 1.8 cm. It is terminated on one end and undamaged. After people started faceting these crystals, many were scraped with a knife to remove the natural encrustation and evaluate the gem potential inside. This piece has never been treated so harshly. If you backlight this piece, you can see it is quite gemmy without damaging it. The finest example I have ever had from this classic American find.