Updated September 22nd, 2009

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Specimens from this show will be shipped after September 25th.
 

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	This link will take you to the specimens listed from $2500 and Up. This category will be updated regularly!
	This link will take you to the specimens listed from $1000 to $2500.   This category will be updated regularly!
	This link will take you to specimens listed from $500 to $1000.  This category will be updated regularly!
Fluorite & Quartz	September 22nd Ernie Schlichter Collection.  Don and Gloria Olson had a room full of the Ernie Schlicter collection.  They premiered the first part of it at the Springfield show last August and picked the rest of it up at Vera's (Ernie's widow) home on the way back to California.  Lots of classics from everywhere. Ernie clearly had a good eye during his collecting career.  I spent several hours pouring over the flats and visiting with Don and Gloria and managed a large hoard when it was said and done.
Wulfenite - Tsumeb	September 22nd Dr. Marvin Rausch Collection.  Gene and Jackie Schlepp are still dispersing the last of the Marve Rausch collection.  I found several items to add to the next update including cabinet specimens of wulfenite with bayldonite from Tsumeb, Namibia; lustrous, deep inky blue fluorite from Grube Beihilfe, Halsbrucke, Germany; and a rhodonite from Franklin, New Jersey.
Raspite & Stolzite	September 22nd Kent English Collection. Davis, California dealer Steve Perry was handling the Kent England collection.  There were only a dozen or so flats of material but it was worthwhile to get there early.  I found some very interesting specimens including a eulytine from Schneeberg, Germany, a stolzite and a raspite from Broken Hill, Australia and several others.
Rhodochrosite	September 22nd Rhodochrosite from China.  There were many fine specimens of the Chinese rhodochrosite available from Collector's Edge and Mineral Search.  Everyone knows that these will never compare to the specimens found at the Sweet Home mine but I have to tell you the quality of some of the pieces becoming available now are just a small percentage point or two below "average" Sweet Home specimens.  The prices were almost too good to believe also so I picked out a baker's dozen (13 for the non-bakers out there).
Buergerite - Mexico	September 22nd Mixed specimens from Denver.  Here is a small group of various minerals from Tsumeb, Mexico, California and other places - all specimens found at the Denver Show.
Brazilianite	September 22nd Brazilianite & Cuprian Elbaite from Brazil.  Luiz Menezes had some fine and reasonably priced specimens of brazilianite available and also several bright blue specimens of cuprian elbaite. Could not resist them....
Fluorapatite	September 22nd Fluorapatite from Afghanistan.  French dealer Francois Lietard had some interesting fluorapatite specimens from the Sorey mine in Dara Pech, Kunar, Afghanistan. These are sort of bicolored with violet and greenish hues.  He had some solid violet colored specimens also from this find.  The violet specimens are non reactive under SW UV light. However, the specimens like the one pictured below fluoresce light yellow under SW UV light.
Cuprite on Copper	September 18th  New Find - Cuprite on Copper from Russia.   There was a buzz around Tucson last February over some new cuprite crystals from Rubtsovsk, Rudniy Altay Mts, Russia.  A couple of dealers - notably KARP - have some new copper specimens many with cuprite associations that are very reminiscent of Tsumeb copper/cuprite combos.  I picked up the better part of a dozen including - according to Ivo - unique specimen of copper and silver pseudomorphing a brilliantly lustrous cuprite crystal.  Below is an average specimen of the copper/cuprite combos and the unique pseudomorph.
Demantoid	September 18th  New Find - Gem Demantoid from Madagascar.   French dealer Frederic Gautier - Little Big Stone - has a new find of andradite var. demantoid made at Antetezambato, Ambanja, Antsiranana, Madagascar recently that was first seen at the Ste Marie Show last June.  This was the first time I have seen them and in my opinion they pretty much redefine what a good demantoid is.  The largest crystals I saw were in the 1 to 1.5 cm range but the vast majority are in the 0.5 to 1 cm size class.  The colors are deep but vary from where they occurred in the deposit.   Frederic mentioned that the deposit is next to the sea so recovery has been difficult. He also mentioned that the government prohibits anyone not of Malagasy descent from working the mines.  He is unsure if the deposit will be an extensive one given the proximity to the ocean and the almost "whack a mole" approach being employed to recover specimens and cutting rough.This
Fluorite	September 18th  Pink Fluorite from Pakistan.  Dudley Blauwet had a small hoard of moderately to heavily etched crystals of pink fluorite from Baha, Braldu Valley, Baltistan, N.A., Pakistan.  When viewed closely the crystallization of the specimens is readily apparent with myriad small faces and modifications of the octahedron.
Axinite-Mg	September 14th  New Find - Axinite-Mg (Magnesioaxinite) from California.  This past spring I was contacted by a fellow, now living in Seattle, Washington, who had lived in the Butte County area when California Highway 70 was being built back in the 1960s. During this time numerous outcrops with ferroaxinite were encountered.  However, one small podiform deposit caught his eye.  In one small deposit there were numerous, bright lustrous, pale beige to plum colored crystals of axinit associated with albite. At the time of the call, as it turned out, there was a show in Seattle that Marcus Origleri was attending.  I asked Marcus if he could swing by and take a look.  He graciously agreed and suggested that I get up and get these as they were clearly not "normal" axinite from California.  I had specimens analyzed by Bart Cannon for their repsective iron and magnesium compositions (In the world of minerals there are rarely nice homogenous things to anlayze.  In most cases where axinite is formed there will be a solid solution series of elements such as manganese, iron and magnesium. At some point the amount of one element or the other determines what we call them). These axinite specimens fell out at slightly more than 4% MgO.  The true end member of Axinite-Mg is 7.48% MgO.  After conferring with Marcus he pointed out that the determining point for classificiation as Axinite-Mg is 3.6%.  So, by that definition these can be legitimately called iron rich Axinite-Mg. These crystals have a color change property going from light beige/colorless in sunlight to a light plum color under incandescent lighting.They are also very weakly fluorescent red under SW UV light.
Jouravskite	September 14th  Jouravskite from South Africa -  I picked up a small lot of one of the rarest species from teh N'Cwaning mine this past summer.  Jouravskite is closely related to Sturmanite, sttringite and Charlesite.  The presence of manganese is the distinction.  Jouravskite always is found in compact aggregates of small crystals.  It just doesn't get any better than that...
Rb-rich Rhodizite	September 14h  Rubidum rich Rhodizite from Madagascar - Also this past summer I picked up a small lot of rhodozite with a fair amount of rubidium in the molecule.  Pure rhodizite has no rubidium in it but these are higher in Potassium than cesium so the Londonite label won't fit since for it to be londonite the cesium has to be higher than the potassium... Confused yet?  Anyway, these are associated with deep red liddicoatite/rubellite crystals.
Calcite	September 14h Prismatic Calcite from China -  I recently obtained a lot of brilliantly lustrous crystals of prismatic calcite from Dachang Mine, Nandan, Guangxi, China.  At first clance they look like quartz crystals. The internal cleavage planes quickly dispell that though.  I don't usually get ramped up over calcite but these caught my eye.
Fluorite from Illinois Wulfenite from Arizona	September 14h  Mixed specimens from Denver -   The first group of random specimens from the Denver Show.