Updated February 15, 2005

This is the page where specimen updates from the 2005 Tucson Show will be easiest to access.

A hell of a lot more specimens and reports will be forthcoming in the days ahead.

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Preset buttons for quick access to What's New

You'll then be presented with a page of specimens to consider.
ALL specimens - auction and gallery items - will be shipped after February 16th.
Please note - all prices for these are net only.  I can offer discounts after the Tucson show has passed.

Thanks for your interest!

 

 Special Requests now posted.

	February 13th This link will take you to the specimens listed from $2500 and Up. This category will be updated regularly!
	February 13th This link will take you to the specimens listed from $1000 to $2500.   This category will be updated regularly!
	February 13th This link will take you to specimens listed from $500 to $1000 .  This category will be updated regularly!
Ludlockite	February 13th - Thumbnail Sized Specimens While scouring the streets of Tucson I put together an array of what I think are interesting thumbnail sized specimens.
Benitoite & Joaquinite Libethenite	February 13th - General Tucson Specimens This link will take you to random specimens from around the world that I found here in Tucson.  I will also put the thumbnail specimens from above up on the page.
San Francisco Mine Mezica, Slovenia	February 10th - Wulfenite I picked up a small collection of wulfenite specimens here in Tucson from global locations.  Most are from Mexico though there are a couple of interesting Arizona and European pieces.
	February 9th - Gold! Nevada dealer Scott Werschky brough some fabulous specimens of native gold from the active Round Mountain mine.  Cubes and many other visually stunning forms are found in this group of specimens.  I have three specimens from the Eagle's Nest mine in California included also in this group.
	February 9th - Andorite Alfredo Petrov had the first group of these available at the Smuggler's Inn show and then Brian Kosnar had a stunning group of these specimens. They were all recovered from the San Jose mine in Bolivia in the 1970s but only released in the past year.  These specimens redifine what has been available for this silver bearing mineral which has the chemical formula: PbAgSb3S6. Several of these specimens also have associations of ferrokesterite and/or  cervantite. All are associated with zinkenite.
Cavansite inc. Calcite Powellite	February 9th - Powellite Raj Minerals had some fine specimens of powellite as did Superb Minerals.  I picked up a few at the show and also from the collection of Dan Balan. One is a fine specimen of scolecite matrix.  I had also arranged to meet up with Indian dealer Dr. Hemant Merchant of Mineral Decor at the Munich Show.  He promised to bring his entire inventory of cavansite included calcite specimens to the Tucson Show. He had first shown examples of in Denver last fall and I was about 15 minutes too late.  If you are a calcite collector these are a remarkable novelty from a very limited find according to Hemant.
	February 9th - Tourmalines! French dealer Francois Lietard had some stunning specimens of tourmaline available from Afghanistan.  There were a lot at the Westward Look show but his were the best in my opinion.  You will get a sense of what sort of pricing is here in Tucson for things like this... Francois' specimens were some of the more moderately priced items too!
	February 8th - Microlite ! This year Brazilian dealer Luiz Menezes was at the Clarion Hotel.  Luiz never fails to have interesting new things from Brazil and 2005 was no different.  This year he has four new finds of minerals.  #1 is a find of fairfieldite on albite from the Cigana Mine in Galileia, Minas Gerais.  The fairfieldite occurs as arching grayish crystals on lustrous albite.  The crystals do not get large only 3-4 mm at best but for a typically drab mineral these are sort of attractive with the contrast.  He also had a new find of chrysoberyl with muscovite from Ipiau, Bahia. The chrysoberyl tends to develop encased in muscovite but there were a few with crystals growing on edge.  Several of the chrysoberyl crystals I saw had an attractive cats eye effect when viewed on edge.  His next two new finds were of microlite.  Recall that Luiz had a new find of microlite at the Munich show also last October. The first is a find with almost solid microlite from the Ipe Mine, Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais.  The rock has been moderately fractured and it is all cinnamon colored microlite except for these small acicular sprays of needle form zircon.  Luiz had it tested thinking it might be something new or exotic... Well, this sort of zircon fits that definition I think.  His second find of microlite is also from the Ipe Mine, Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais however the crystals from this find are isolated, though small, and found with attractive muscovite crystals.
	February 8th - Fairfieldite
	February 8th - Cat's Eye Chrysoberyl
Silver Proustite Rhodochrosite	February 7th - Proustite & other Ag minerals Peruvian dealer Teodocio Ramos Cabrera and his wife were set up in room 104 at the Inn Suites and had a fine array of proustite specimens from the Uchucchacua mine, Oyon Province, Lima Department, Peru.  A few of these were associated with bright pink rhodochrosite though most were "merely" associated with quartz or calcite only.  Several also had polybasite and wire silver associations.  There was also a fine specimen of rhodochrosite I could not leave for the "next guy".
Fluorite inc. Quartz	February 5th - Fluorite included Quartz French dealer Frederic Gautier brought a large array of quartz crystals with inclusions of small violet colored fluorite crystals from Miandrivazo Province, Madagascar.  Almost every one of the crystals has some level of damage ranging from minute dings to broken terminations and prism faces.  Many of the crystals have vacant air pockets where fluorite crystals were dissolved away over time.  Only those crystals completely protected by the quartz were spared this fate.  Even the slightest opening of the fluorite outside the quartz resulted in a vacated air space. I saw literally hundreds of specimens that Frederic brought and found only 14 to post to the web. One of the new finds here in Tucson.
	January 24th - Bill Birnie Onganja Copper Collection In spring of 2004 I was contacted by Bill Birnie of San Marcos, Texas regarding a large hoard of Tsumeb and Onganja mineral specimens he was looking to part with.  After a brief time - say about 1 minute and 22 seconds -  it became clear to me that his hoard of copper specimens was perhaps the finest group of Onganja Coppers that would ever hit the market at one time. You can read more about Bill at the Tsumeb.com website.  I felt that his copper specimens and included calcite specimens would require more time to study and prepare than his equally impressive Tsumeb material - hence, the delay until now with their release.  This is the last and best chance you will ever have to pick up high quality Onganja Copper specimens at this pricing level.  I have seen a few copper specimens over the past 8 months at various shows in the USA and Europe and the pricing for the pieces I saw was 3 times or more what you will see here for the quality.  This first link will take you to the Onganja Mine specimens from $50 and under. The links below will take you to the next pricing levels.
	January 24th - Bill Birnie Onganja Copper Collection This link will take you to the Onganja Mine specimens from $51 to $100.
	January 24th - Bill Birnie Onganja Copper Collection This link will take you to the Onganja Mine specimens from $101 to $250.
	January 24th - Bill Birnie Onganja Copper Collection This link will take you to the Onganja Mine specimens from $251 to $500.
	January 24th - Bill Birnie Onganja Copper Collection This link will take you to the Onganja Mine specimens from $501 to $1000.
	January 24th - Bill Birnie Onganja Copper Collection This link will take you to the Onganja Mine specimens from $1001 to $2500.
	January 24th - Bill Birnie Onganja Copper Collection This link will take you to the Onganja Mine specimens from $2501 & Up.
Gold - Colorado Rosasite ps Azurite Tsumeb Liroconite - England	January 17th - Frank Edwards Collection Global Minerals - Frank Edwards put together a large array of fine minerals from many global localities! There are about 50-60 specimens posted here that are available on line - many historically significant pieces from the Calvert and Harvard Collections to name but only a few.
Larsenite Margarosanite R. B. Gage Label	January 17th - Frank Edwards Collection Minerals from Franklin & Sterling Hill, New Jersey - Noted East Coast collector Frank Edwards put together a large collection of minerals from the famous Franklin and Sterling Hill mines of New Jersey.  The bulk of that collection was sold a while back but scores of fine specimens were still held by Frank's son Richard.  This group has a great many significant (mineralogically and historically) specimens in it. Those that are fluorescent are noted as such.
Pinakiolite -Långban Magnetite - Nordmark	January 17th - Frank Edwards Collection Swedish Minerals - Frank had a fine array of interesting minerals from Sweden including some rarities from Långban as well as other Swedish localities such as Pajsberg.