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Paul Enright
Joined: 24 Jun 2020
Posts: 7
Location: Minnesota
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 Posted: Jun 27, 2020 10:32 Post subject: Unknown minerals |
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Any help would be appreciated.
| Mineral: | Unknown mineral |
| Locality: | | Minnesota, USA |  |
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| Dimensions: | 30mm x 20mmm |
| Description: |
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11028 Time(s) |
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Paul Enright
Joined: 24 Jun 2020
Posts: 7
Location: Minnesota
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| Posted: Jun 27, 2020 11:12 Post subject: Re: Unknown minerals |
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This and the above mineral were found buried under landscaping rocks in a yard.
| Mineral: | Unknown |
| Locality: | | Minnesota, USA | |
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| Dimensions: | 21mm x 10mm |
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10985 Time(s) |
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Peter Lemkin
Joined: 18 Nov 2016
Posts: 403
Location: Prague
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| Posted: Jun 27, 2020 11:23 Post subject: Re: Unknown minerals |
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| Broken quartz crystal...but some faces or part faces visible.
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Paul Enright
Joined: 24 Jun 2020
Posts: 7
Location: Minnesota
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| Posted: Jun 27, 2020 11:30 Post subject: Re: Unknown minerals |
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Both sitting next to the other. I also have some minerals I found in Pine Co. MN area. Also a collection of polished minerals given to me by a native on a reservation I lived on in Pine County MN. I believe there to be secret mining in this area. I’ll show others if interested? Also I am curious what the best way a novice collector can learn and identify minerals by myself?
| Mineral: | Unknown |
| Locality: | | Minnesota, USA | |
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| Dimensions: | Listed above |
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10959 Time(s) |
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Peter Lemkin
Joined: 18 Nov 2016
Posts: 403
Location: Prague
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| Posted: Jun 27, 2020 13:31 Post subject: Re: Unknown minerals |
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| This forum doesn't really deal with polished stones. Quartz is one of the two most common minerals usually found crystallized. A crystal that has no or very minor damage would be of greater interest. I suggest you find a local mineral club in your area and/or get a book [such as one by Sinkankas] on mineralogy and what is what in minerals.
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Paul Enright
Joined: 24 Jun 2020
Posts: 7
Location: Minnesota
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| Posted: Jun 27, 2020 14:23 Post subject: Re: Unknown minerals |
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A native into minerals had suggested the bigger crystal was a amethyst from S.America. Here Is a group picture of some polished and some unpolished. I guess was curious if had anything of value? I’m sorry as seemed to waste people’s time with this.
| Mineral: | Unknown |
| Dimensions: | Different sizes |
| Description: |
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| Viewed: |
10906 Time(s) |
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Pete Richards
Site Admin
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Posts: 841
Location: Northeast Ohio
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| Posted: Jun 27, 2020 15:46 Post subject: Re: Unknown minerals |
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We very specifically do not deal with questions of value. You will have to look elsewhere for answers about that.
_________________
Collecting and studying crystals with interesting habits, twinning, and epitaxy |
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Paul Enright
Joined: 24 Jun 2020
Posts: 7
Location: Minnesota
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| Posted: Jun 27, 2020 19:37 Post subject: Re: Unknown minerals |
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| I wasn’t looking for a appraisal. I guess being a complete rookie this isn’t the forum for me? With the Covid situation I could find no place to go trying to find out about the rocks the natives had given me. I had seen and described the spirit of a passed native medicine man prompting the gift. I'm now in Minneapolis at a place not knowing my roommates very well and I find myself carrying them everywhere I go so became curious about them. I guess I felt honored receiving the gift so was trying to learn about them.
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Peter Lemkin
Joined: 18 Nov 2016
Posts: 403
Location: Prague
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| Posted: Jun 27, 2020 22:33 Post subject: Re: Unknown minerals |
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In the end, a rock or mineral specimen is 'worth' its 'value' to you for its ethetics or the emotional connection you have to it due to how it was obtained, from who it was obtained, etc. As mentioned, there is a policy here of not commenting on actual monetary value, but I think I can say that none of the stones you show have any intrinsic monetary value - but that doesn't mean they don't have 'value' to you. It is the value you assign. I have a very large collection - about half self-collected and half bought/traded. While those I had to purchase or trade often have the greatest value in the mineral world, it's those I spent a day or more finding myself that have the most 'value' to me - not of the monetary kind - just the emotional kind. You may well find the same. Again, I think you need to find a mineral club near you or to buy an introductory book on common minerals so you can learn to identify them and what different features they have that can help you to identify them yourself or ask more specific questions if you can not. 'Value' and importance is in the mind of the beholder in the end......
You might be interested in this thread here:
https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?t=5097&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
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Paul Enright
Joined: 24 Jun 2020
Posts: 7
Location: Minnesota
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| Posted: Jun 28, 2020 07:37 Post subject: Re: Unknown minerals |
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| Thank you sir for the advice in a very wise reply! I used to drive to many different areas, sitting in the truck watching small groups searching rocks for hours! I thought it so silly but then realized it takes an inner peace to search or a inner peace develops during the search! I finally found that peace and find I really enjoy it! I just get frustrated during or after having no clue what I’m looking at! Lol Thanks again!
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James Catmur
Site Admin
Joined: 14 Sep 2006
Posts: 1461
Location: Cambridge
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Kevin Schofield
Joined: 05 Jan 2018
Posts: 169
Location: Beacon NY
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| Posted: Jun 28, 2020 13:05 Post subject: Re: Unknown minerals |
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| Paul Enright wrote: | | A native into minerals had suggested the bigger crystal was a amethyst from S. America. Here Is a group picture of some polished and some unpolished. I guess was curious if had anything of value? I’m sorry as seemed to waste people’s time with this. |
Hi Paul,
Please don't worry about "wasting people's time". If members of the forum don't want to answer, they won't. If some of the answers on economics and polished minerals seemed a bit short, please understand that they are merely informative, not meant to indicate displeasure...
As for your rocks and minerals, others have already ID'd the two big quartz crystals. I can give you one or two pointers from the collection on the shelf:
Middle row, far right, the "large" grey rock with white crystal-lined holes is a piece of basalt. The holes are (were) gas bubbles preserved when the lava that formed the basalt solidified. They then became lined with crystalline mineral(s) as water circulated through the solidified flow. The picture is too small to identify the mineral here, but it likely belongs to a family of minerals called the Zeolites (see Wikipedia!)
Two to the left of the basalt, the pinkish polished stone with hexagonal patterns is a " Petoskey stone", which is actually a fossilized coral found in limestones in Michigan. The hexagons are the fossil corals. Second from right on the bottom row may be the same thing.
Most of the rest can't be well identified from a picture, although polished varieties of very finely crystalline quartz are a good bet for several of them. One interesting possibility as it is clear that at least some were sourced in Michigan is that the grey and pink flattish one next to the fossil coral is a nodule with the mineral Datolite from Michigan's upper peninsula, but that is a purely contextual guess!
As for the best way for a novice to learn about mineral identification, the best tactic is to join a local mineral club. Just Google something like "MIneral Clubs around Minneapolis", and something will pop up!
Happy trails,
Kevin
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Veni, Vidi, Emi |
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Michael Shaw
Site Admin
Joined: 30 Apr 2008
Posts: 2226
Location: Oklahoma
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| Posted: Jun 28, 2020 14:10 Post subject: Re: Unknown minerals |
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| Pretty much in the center there is a cut nodule known as a "Thunder Egg" most likely from Oregon. It has a irregularly-shaped blue center with a brown rind. The blue portion is made up of chalcedony which is a variety of quartz.
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Paul Enright
Joined: 24 Jun 2020
Posts: 7
Location: Minnesota
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| Posted: Jun 29, 2020 06:57 Post subject: Re: Unknown minerals |
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| Ty for all your help!
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