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[Tobi]

Corundum var. Ruby.
Mysore District, Karnataka, India.
50 x 45 x 40 mm, main crystal 25 mm long.

(Photo © by vendor and previous owner Klaus Krause)

[Tobi]

Some more photos of the main crystal:

[Debbie Woolf]

Very nice ... love the colour !

[Tobi]

I'm glad you like it ... though it is not from Namibia ;-)

Speaking of colour: Though i can't mess with the many great macro photos that are posted in this forum, here's one of the very rare macros i did on my own. I thought it was worth posting because the colour is nice and the quality is quite ok.
Picture shows conichalcite from Gold Hill, Utah.

[Tobi]

Calcite.
Sweetwater Mine, Missouri, USA.
200 x 120 x 25 mm, crystals 40 mm.

(Photo © by vendor and previous owner Klaus Krause)

[Tobi]

Novelty # 1 to my quartz collection:

Amethyst.
Priozersk, Karagandy Province, Kazakhstan.
70 x 60 x 40 mm, crystals 9 & 14 mm.

[Tobi]

Novelty # 2 to my quartz collection:

Smoky Quartz (double-terminated).
Neandertal, Mettmann, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. (And yes, this is the Neandertal where the famous Neanderthal Man was found ...).
115 x 80 x 50 mm, crystal 22 mm.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Hi,

that´s what I call a good one from Neandertal! Not seen that often, nice.

Cheers
Andreas

[Tobi]

Hi Andreas,

i talked to the previous owner who had several of those quartzes, and he told me the same: Usually they are not as good as this specimen. But thus i could combine two advantages in this specimen: Aesthetics AND a rare locality :-) But there's an interesting history behind those quartz specimens: They were found when they built a new train station in Mettmann. (Mettmann, for all who are not from Germany, is a small city near Düsseldorf. Parts of the famous Neandertal are located in Mettmann).

Next specimen is also a smoky quartz, but - sorry Andreas - not from Germany ;-)
Smoky quartz coated with spessartine. Wushan Mine, Tongbei, Fujian Province, China. Height 60 mm, largest garnet ~ 5 mm.
(Photo © by vendor and previous owner Klaus Krause)

[Tobi]

Large quartz crystal with clear top. Features some pale green fluorites.
Farm Erongorus 166, Erongo Region, Namibia.
Lenght 150 mm.

[Tobi]

Beryl var. aquamarine.
Gilgit-Baltistan (former Northern Areas), Pakistan.
Height 32 mm.

(Photo © by Klaus Krause)

[chris]

Hi Tobias,

Great specimen from Neandertal. Was it found at the very same place (a quarry if my memory is correct) or someplace else inside the locality range ?

Thanks

[Tobi]

Hey Chris, please read my explanation above: It was found when they were building a new train station in the city of Mettmann.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Hi,

well, the circumstances of the find i never heard of. Hence thanks for mentioning it;-) Do you know when exactly these quartzes have been found?

Cheers
Andreas (whose own Neanderthal quartz measures 4 mm only...)

[Tobi]

I was told they were found in the early 1980s. I don't remember the exact year, but i think the vendor mentioned 1982. If so, the smoky quartz was discovered the same year that i was born ... but nevertheless i suppose it is slightly older than me ;-)