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DENVER’S DIRTY DOZEN
(although they subsequently have been cleaned)
We went to Denver on a mission: to find as many
previously featured minerals as possible to offer you. We succeeded! We now have
new lots of twelve past minerals, to offer in the same good size and excellent
quality we originally sent to Club members! Here they are, left to right, in
order of when we featured them:
Kyanite May 1996
Apophyllite July 1996 Spessartine
Garnet August 1998 Apatite October
1998 Sphalerite* December
1998 Tetrahedrite July 1999
Atacamite September 1999 Creedite October
1999 Staurolite May
2001 Dioptase September
2001 Grossular Garnet December
2002 Magnetite April 2003
* The September/October 2003 Rocks & Minerals
featured sphalerite in its Connoisseur’s Choice column, calling sphalerite
from the Elmwood Mine, Smith County, Tennessee, where our specimens come from,
"spectacular sphalerite specimens, dominated by complex mahogany-brown
groups of crystals on matrix." We agree!
The above specimens are all very good in quality,
and are available for $22.50 each, except for kyanite, staurolite, and creedite,
which are $16. Please order soon, as we have only relatively small lots. We will
also send the corresponding write-up to go with each mineral.
We have a few of the above minerals in extra quality specimens, meaning the
crystals and/or the specimens are larger: Spessartine garnet for $32, sphalerite
for $30, apatite for $32, tennantite for $30, and apophyllite for $28.
We also picked up a few complete Russian glendonite specimens, like the one
in the scan to the right. These are larger and rarer, and hence a little more
valuable. We have pieces up to about 2¾" by 1¾" for $35, bigger for
$42, and biggest for $50.
Thinking about last month’s tourmaline from the Erongo Massif, Namibia, we
were happy to pick up some nice aquamarine clusters from the same locality.
These have fairly good color and translucence, a good bargain for the price:
crystals about ¾" long and ¼" wide for $20, and one larger crystal
about 1" by ¾" for $48.
A few years ago in Denver, we made an excellent connection for meteorites
from Gibeon, Namibia, at excellent prices. We have brought some back every year
since, and they usually all get bought up by a serious meteorite collector at
the Santa Monica Show the following weekend. But he didn’t come by our booth
this time, so we are happy to offer these to you! We have small fist-size to
very large double fist-size pieces available from $200 to $700. Call for more
details if you’re interested.
Cinnabar is a mineral we would love to feature in the Club, but so far have
never seen nearly enough pieces at one time. In Denver, we picked out some good
specimens from Hunhuang, Huihua City, Hunan Province, China, as red crystals on
a layer of white calcite crystals on gray basalt. The smallest are crystals
about ¼" across on 3" by 2" matrix for $18; the crystals and
matrix go up in size from there, to $24 to $30 to $60 and one for $90.
MORE FINE SPECIMENS FROM DALNEGORSK, RUSSIA We were delighted to get a few
more of these to offer. We have rare axinite as clusters of bladed root
beer-brown crystals about ½" long jutting up on matrix for $22, $32, and
$40; rounded octahedrons of galena, $12 and $22; sphalerite, for $32 and $54;
also specimens of clear fluorite, calcite, quartz, and a beautiful, large
pyrrhotite– call if interested.
Also, we still have nice specimens in the Junior-size of many of the minerals
we've featured in the last couple of years. If you wish, you may choose any
twelve of these past minerals and we'll send them to you along with their
write-ups for just $77: (Minerals with an * denote a new find) barite from
Rancho Palo Verde, Cal; malachite from Zaire; eudialyte from Quebec, Canada;
actinolite from Wrightwood, Cal; hematite "Iron Roses" from Brazil;
pyromorphite* from China; cobaltoan dolomite from Zaire; conichalcite from
Mexico; heulandite* from Challis, Idaho; "Raspberry" grossular garnet
from Mexico; aurichalcite from Nevada; colemanite from Boron, Cal; diamond from
Zaire; magnetite* from Bolivia; fluorapatite from near Lake Baikal, Russia;
scepter quartz* from Mexico; and rhodonite from Brazil. If you would like more
than 12, any additional specimens would be $6 more.
We also received as part of our tourmaline lot a few nice Junior-size
doubly-terminated tourmalines about 1" by 1", showing the hemimorphic
nature of tourmaline, with different crystals forms on both terminations. We
have a few for $10 each. We also received a few pieces with clusters of smoky
quartz crystals up to 1½" and black tourmaline crystals up to ¾" for
$8.
STILL AVAILABLE LODESTONE as chunk-size pieces from
about 2" by 1½" to 2" by 2" for $3.50 or 2 for $6, or if
you need a quantity for friends, relatives, or students, we have flats with 35
pieces for $70; GRAPHITE specimens, from a classic locality, the Plumbago
Mine, Seathwaite, Lake District, England. We have small chunks of pure
graphite up to 1½" by 2" for $7; NATIVE ANTIMONY as small
pieces mounted in 1" by 1" plastic thumbnail cases for $5, small
pieces up to about 1¾" by 1½" for $8; ANTHRACITE COAL as
dirty chunks of carbon, medium to about 2" by 2" for $4 and
larger chunks to 3" by 4" are $6. Brown chunks of lava from La
Reunion Island, up to 2" by 1½" for $4
As always, U.S. shipping is included, your satisfaction is guaranteed, and
anything ordered will be shipped with your next monthly mineral specimen, and we’ll
send the corresponding write-up on minerals we’ve featured so you can read up
on it. Call us at 1-800-941-5594 to order or E-mail us. Thanks!
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