FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[AndyH]

(See photo of fluorite specimen (yellow core cube with blue lines edge zoning) and label on reverse) Can someone please identify the location, somewhere in Switzerland apparently? I read the label as "FLUORITE, GRUBE ANNA, FALL (or FAUL?) FOLDING, SWITZERLAND" but can't find any such locality listed anywhere. Thanks

[jose luis jara jara]

[AndyH]

Thanks, yes all the examples I could find of "Grube Anna" are German indeed. But the label is clearly saying "Switzerland" so I'm wondering whether there is a simple error of country or locality or perhaps there is a Grube Anne in Switzerland after all that Google doesn't know about.....

[jose luis jara jara]

[Pete Richards]

Germany (or Austria) certainly seems to make the most sense. As for Switzerland, a Mindat search for "Grube" (mine or pit) with no further locality specification brings up only two matches in Switzerland, neither one of which suggests a match with the rest of the locality information on the label. One is Lengenbach, which is clearly not the source of this specimen, in my opinion. The other is the Riepel Pit, in Aargau, for which only gypsum is listed.

If this specimen is from Switzerland, it is from a locality that Mindat does not know about.

Some fluorite specimens listed on the web are said to come from a Grube Anna in Freiburg, Germany. One Mindat discussion entry, quoted as a screen capture below, refers to a St. Anna mine in Fahl in the Black Forest region of Germany.

[alfredo]

I wonder whether the locality is simply the Grube Anna (Germany) and the last two lines are the person it was obtained from, ie. Paul somebody-or-other in Switzerland?
(with no implication that the mine itself is in Switzerland)

[Tobi]

Hi, my thoughts on this:

- The label says neither FALL nor FAUL nor PAUL, it says FAHL.
- Fahl is the locality in Black Forest (Germany) where Grube Anna is located.
- Fluorites like this occured at Grube Anna.
- Switzerland is just a mistake (but Fahl is in the very southwest of Germany and not far from the border to Switzerland, maybe someone confused this ;-)

Regards
Tobi

[alfredo]

Thank you, Tobi!

We need to think of a good punishment for people with terrible handwriting. My primary school teacher would never have accepted such a mess ;((

[lluis]

Maybe adding more confusion...
But If it read Fahl, then, I thing next is Foldina.
Maybe in any place of Graubunden canton? It would be sure Swiss, with a mess in locality name (val Foldina looks to me as Romantsch... Clara is a grisons name.
Sadly, my mother in law, swiss from grisons passed away not so many time ago, so, I may not ask her.
Or maybe in Ticino.... Val Foldina could be also italian...
With best wishes

Lluís

[Tobi]

[lluis]

All could be, Toby...
When there is a fault, many could be there... As the Fahl, that I could not read as fahl, but as Faul....
Who knows what wished to be written...? Not me, by sure

With best wishes

Lluís

P.D.: apart that folding sounds odd to me (not word, but "fahl" and folding...

[CaF2_4_me]

Hello everyone,

I am very sure that the piece comes from the Anna Fahl mine in Todtnau. I know of comparable pieces and have one in my collection. I suspect that the label is a misuse of an original label. “Todtnau/Schwarzwald” may have been replaced by ‘Folding-Schweiz’ with a little imagination?

Best regards
Armin

[AndyH]

Thanks Tobi and Armin, seems there's a resolution... Armin's example looks identical to mine - see (slightly) better smartphone photo attached (I saturated the colours and aligned the crystal to show the multiple blue lines in the edge zoning. I'll amend my catalogue notes accordingly and remove the current label.
Thanks also to others who took the time to reply to my query.