November 3 This day was spent scouring Halls A4 and A5 for more buying opportunities.  This year it has been difficult to find specimens that can be purchased for resale with the exchange rate at essentially 1.5$ to 1 Euro.  To be successful one needs a range of tools - an arsenal really - including a good smile, an ability to have an expression on your face akin to that of a sad puppy dog, cash in hand (but not visibly so), a willingness to listen to people with genuine interest, and most important, a good set of knee pads when it comes to pleading and begging with a total lack of self respect.   There are a couple of new things to report on here including a new find of lustrous, twinned green sphene crystals from a new locality in Brazil.  German dealer Gunnar Farber had these large thumbnail sized specimens from Sao Geraldo do Araguaia in Para, Brazil.  The exact locality is not known as these were brought out of the jungle by a local collector in Sao Geraldo who had found them in mud. No matrix at all - just floater crystals. Two views of a 2.5 cm twinned crystal of sphene.   A new mineral has been described recently and it is sure to cause a lot of confusion in the hobby.  It is a new species called Olmiite. It was officially described this past April and is found at the N'Chwaning II mine in South Africa. What is confusing is that it is the manganese end member of the poldervaartite mineral and it looks exactly like just about every new poldervaartite specimen you have seen in the past few years.  That is because the poldervaartite in your collection is likely an olmiite or combination of both species.  South African dealer Kalahari Mineral Ventures had a group of analyzed specimens that are olmiite and I made a small selection.  Many are associated with celestite and/or bulfonteinite. Two specimens of olmiite with bultfonteinite associations. The specimen on the left is 4+ cm across and the one the right is 3 cm across.   In Hall A4 I decided to look for some good specimens from known localities and stumbled across French dealer Jerome Adani who had some very good specimens of torbernite from the Margabal Mine near Averyon, France.  The specimens are without matrix and consist of clusters of slightly curved crystals.  I know I am asking for it by trying to get these radioactive specimens back to the USA.  Back in 2001 I had a memorable experience with customs in San Francisco... Anyway, it turns out that Jerome actually collected these recently as he lives less than 100 km from the mine. Two specimens of torbernite I obtained.  I promise that I will have the cotton fibers removed before I photograph them again for the update... I saw a lot of Chinese cinnabar available from many dealers but only one had exceptional quality in terms of luster and color.  Yong Xi Mineral Collection Museum had scores of specimens available and I spent 20 minutes cherry picking the best that he had.  Some of these will need a little work when I get home but the color and/or luster are exceptional on these.  They all come from the  Tongren mine in Guizhou, China. Two specimens of cinnabar on dolomite. Two gem crystals on the left to 1.4 cm across and prismatic crystals on the right to 1.5 cm in length.   About a year ago Ed Rosensweig was forced to close up Edward's Fine Minerals due to health problems.  I am happy to report that Ed is back and feeling close to 100% again.  I had a chance to enjoy a glass of fine German red wine and catch up with him again.  Ed is a top shelf dealer and always has interesting minerals for your consideration. A shot of Ed at the wine bar in the International Pavilion. Speaking of the International Pavilion I saw Brice and Christophe Gobin and as usual they had a few eye popping minerals on display.  Both were from Pakistan and both were nothing short of dazzling. A 35 cm specimen of Feldspar with a gem Aquamarine from Shigar Valley. An unbelievable crystal of deep blue aquamarine with a green and pink fluorite crystal set atop it. Just stunning!! Last and far from least in the Pavillion I saw what would like for my future graveside headstone.  Rob Lavinsky had this beast boxed up and my head started to spin when he opened the box to show it to me (or taunt me as I could never afford this 6 figure rock). It is a 45 cm specimen of benitoite and neptunite with benitoite crystals to nearly 4 cm across.   He said he'd recently obtained this from a collector in the USA.  Put me in your will Rob for old time's sake... A jungle of blue triangles - my vision of heaven.   German dealer Gerd Wiedenbeck had his usual Wein und Stein display again this year.  This time it was a very fine aquamarine specimen pictured on label for a white wine. Gerd had an interesting marketing strategy this time saying that the mineral specimen was only ten euros.  However, the bottle of wine was 2,090 euros and to get the rock you had to purchase the wine also... ;^) The mineral and the bottle with the mineral on the label. I spent some additional time with Dan & Diana Weinrich and found out that they along with Dave Bunk purchased the important Jim & Dawn Minette collection.  Jim passed away a few years ago and Dawn has made the decision to release the collection to the group of above dealers - at considerable expense I might add. This is going to be a significant event at the Tucson Show next February and Dan says that they are holding back about 20% of the collection for the 2008 Denver Show also.  Read more about it below.   More to come from Munich tomorrow!