Repair. Verb. Restore (something damaged, faulty, or worn) to a good condition.
Nature produces some fantastic mineral specimens. We usually only get to see them after they have been extracted from the Earth. And sometimes, the act of extracting can be damaging.
Repairs to minerals are often frowned upon by collectors, but can be important for rare, unusual or aesthetic specimens. Repairs are more acceptable if they are noted as such when offered for sale or trade. “Created” specimens (that were never in that configuration or combination) are not.
This specimen is repaired. The green fluorapatite crystal broke into three pieces, probably when being extracted. I don’t believe the person I got it from knew it was repaired, but his supplier should certainly have known, and may possibly have been responsible for the repair. It was not labelled as such.
Do I have an issue with this? Not particularly. The repair isn’t readily visible except under magnification, or under ultraviolet light (the glue fluoresces). And it is an aesthetic specimen that I would likely be unable to collect myself. And it wasn’t expensive. But it should have been so labelled. 😁
