FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[prospector]

Peter

I like the butterfly calcite the best of the specimens that you show.

Al

[jimB]

Im far from worn out looking at pictures of Tsumeb specimens. Consider this, the magnificent Azurite in Sr. Folch's collection pictured some where on this site is entirely new to me and spectacular. More of the same! I wonder what else is hiding in drawers. The Sr. Folch piece looks very much like my memory of a written description of the specimen collected by Sam Gordon. I havn't seen that one either. More photos please.

Redundancy in minerals is expressed nicely in that at any given show if a collector can identify 60 species with modest accuracy, that collector can easily move through the displays and boxes with considerable effect. More is better of course but humble knowledge translates into major enjoyment of the hobby even if the field is (and at this level must be) redundant.

Richard Bideaux once did a little study of all the minerals on display in competition at a National Show in the late 60s. The printout showed the occurence of each species displayed and the number of times it appeared. 60 is my number of convienance, if memory serves after 40 or so species, minerals begin to show up once or twice in the entire field. In other words every one displays a quartz or calcite and a pyrite, azurite, malachite etc. These recurr so often as to be nearly uncompetitve unless they scream. Evern so I enjoy looking at them, redundant as they may be.

[Farlang]

I rarely ever agree with John White, but I do agree on this one. Obviously one can post whatever one finds fascinating but as to personal interests: I liked his posted mineral actually as I personally love minerals that "surprise". Either through their 3-dimensionality or through their contrast or their unexpected combinations.

The "artichoke" quartz would be a premier candidate for my own collection.

And yes, I too am totally numb to Tsumeb, Paki aqua's, rhodochrosites, single gem crystals (bo-ring), moroccon vanadinites, the chinese fluorites (well many of them) and so on.

Elite collecting has resulted in a standardization of mineral tastes and mineral aestethic qualifications. And you know what ? Wanna be a supreme collector ? Develop your own vision and break away from the mold. The mold is for followers anyway and building a collection hardly ever is.

And where obviously one has to think about market values for pieces over 5000 or 10,000 or more like 50,000 nowadays there are plenty of specimens being interesting and very aesthetic at the same time. After all marketing a top collection in any field is much more about branding and about the storyline behind it... and the more unique the storyline, the easier and more press-sensitive the collection.