The theme this year for the main show was copper.  Some great displays were made available by museums, universities and private collectors.  More on that further but here are some more shots from the show.

My benitoite partner Steve Perry's booth at the main show.  That is Jerry Rosenthal helping out.  

As mentioned earlier the theme for the show this year was copper.  There were many displays worthy of mentioning here but I tried to keep my focus on the theme for the most part.  Here we go:

The School of mines insanely huge specimen of covellite! Big as a honeydew melon!.

Rare combination of rhodo and malachite from the Sweet Home mine also from the School of Mines Collection.

An exceptional enargite.

The Smithsonian Institution brought many fine pieces - the partial malachite pseudo and liroconite got my attention.

Linarite from the Mammoth St.Anthony mine in Tiger!

Lustrous calcite crystals included with bright copper from Michigan.

An enormous crystal of cuprite lightly coated with malachite from Onganja. 

A 2/3 inch crystal of liroconite was on display courtesy of American Museum of Natural History. 

The Chessy azurite was an equally impressive sight! About 10 cm across!

The LA County museum presented this specimen of cuprite from Bisbee.

Also presented by the LA County museum were these two gemstones - cuprian elbaite from Brazil and copper stained opal from Peru.

Colorado Collector Ralph Clark has one of the finest TN collections in existence. 

Some close ups of Ralph's collection.

Ralph Clark's exceptional Co-Adamite. 

Another of Ralph Clark's specimens.

Gemmy rhodonite crystal cluster in Ralph Clark's collection.

Exceptional raspite with a small stolzite at the base from Ralph Clark's collection.

Another very fine TN collection of copper mienrals presented by Michael & Debbie Ausec.

Bill Severance presented some exceptional specimens from the copper country in Michigan.

A large cabinet sized specimen of crystalline copper and silver. 

A large cabinet sized scupted specimen of crystalline copper.  

Les and Paula Presmy had a marvelous display of colorful copper minerals from Arizona.

This specimen from Morenci seemed unreal to me.

This is probably the finest malachite in calcite from Bisbee.

The State of New Mexico had a great display of copper minerals from New Mexico - this is a 15 cm crystal of chalcopyrite!

Copper with cubic crystals - a rare habit for copper!

Couldn't resist this one in the MAD case... One of the finest Mn-Adamites in existence!

Christopher Stefano has assembled an incredible TN collection of rare species!

An enormous durangite from Durango, Mexico.  

A fine collection of related copper rarities.

David & Karen DeBruin had this display of fine copper specimens from Michigan.

A dog house sized specimen of ajoite included quartz from Messina, South Africa. I heard from Dr. Bruce Cairncross that
This specimen was brought to Denver by Ronnie McKenzie from Pretoria, South Africa.

Ok, that will wrap it up for this year's Denver Show.   Other than the Iowa barytes there were just a few things here and there to report on as new to the mineral collector world.  This will sound old but pricing is all over the place as usual.  If a person is at all serious about saving some dollars excellent minerals of equal quality can be found with a 3 digit price tag versus a 5 digit price tag.  But many collectors equate quality with price so as long as that persists there will be a wide disparity between dealers and their prices being asked for minerals.

The market seemed to be quite active this year and many dealers told me that they had had a great show.  Some others with "tired" inventory found themselves boxing up their specimens after the end of the show with some long faces.

For me this was a pretty good show overall.  I found a lot of interesting specimens which I will have posted before September 25th.  Some fixer uppers, trim jobs and cleaning will enhance the value for many of the specimens I obtained.  It all takes a little time to get done and there is only me to do the work unfortunately.

A special thanks to Marty Zinn for the 30th year he has been organizing mineral shows.  Without his efforts a lot of people like me would still find ourselves working at our former day jobs.

I will end this final report with a series of pictures I took on the return trip home.  I chose I-25 to I-80 to US 395 to CA Hwy 44 to CA Hwy 299 for the trip back home and the scenery is rather dull in contrast to trip out...

2010
Tucson Show
San Francisco Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show

2011
Tucson Show
San Francisco Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show
Munich Show

2012
Tucson Show
West Coast Show
East Coast Show
Denver Show 
Munich Show

2013
Tucson Show
Sainte Marie Show
Crystal Days (Poland)
Munich Show