[Rockhounds] Smelter Nickel

[Lawrence Rush]

OK...this time I DO have a  real puzzle..................

In the 1980's, I used to attend a swap session every summer in New 
Hampshire. For several years there, a gentleman would approach me (he did 
not have a booth), and offer to trade me a Nickel specimen. These came out 
of a smelter somewhere, and were attractive, being kind of globular, and 
kind of dendritic, and shiny metallic. It was maybe 4x8cm in size. No label, 
and I wasn't sophisticated enough to ask for one.

I re-traded one of these (don't remember what happened to the rest) to a 
friend in Arkansas. That owner died and this particular one recently showed 
up on an auction site on the web, and was sold to another collector. Since 
it had my label on it, he contacted me for locality information. I know 
nothing about the specimen or the person who originally had it.

Is there any member who knows anything about this trader? Would anyone know 
where Nickel might have been smelted in the 1980's, and how it might have 
got out into the hands of a mineral trader? I would like to be able to add 
something to the label besides the specimen (and my) name.

Thanks.....Larry Rush