FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Tobi]

Hi again,

related to my question about your favourite mineral groups/species, i also wanted to know if the general locality preferences differ very much among our community or if there's much agreement. I don't mean special mining areas but only the generally preferred countries. Of course this depends on many factors, but the result interests me. I know e.g. a lot of collectors who specialize on Chinese minerals because of their beauty; but i also know some who don't like Chinese minerals that much because they rather like specimens from old and historical localities, maybe from England, Germany or the U.S.. However, i would like to see what our forum members prefer as origins of their minerals. Maybe there are even some more who collect only minerals from one country, like our member Andreas Gerstenberg does with his great collection of German minerals. My personal top list of "great mineral countries" includes:

Germany
USA
Mexico
Brazil
Pakistan
Afghanistan
China
Russia
Morocco
Namibia

Cheers!

[Montanpark]

1. Germany
2. Namibia
3. Morocco
4. Russia
5. Mexico
6. Brazil
7. Peru
8. China
9. USA
10. Spain

;)

cheers
Roger

[alfredo]

Mineral collectors tend to be a bit nationalistic and prefer their home country's minerals so, most of the time, Sweden will be in first place for Swedish collectors, Germany for German collectors, etc.... No surprise. So perhaps it would make more sense to ask: What is your SECOND favorite country? American collectors, having such a large area to choose from, tend to prefer their home state, rather than country, especially the collectors from Colorado, California, Washington, Pennsylvania and New Jersey ;))

I think I'm an exception myself, because I only collect minerals from Japan and Bolivia, neither of which is my home country.

[Montanpark]

Alfredo,
i slightly disagree ;) ... at least in my case this hasn´t to do with the "nationalistic" viewpoint but with one of my collection focuses: pyromorphite and rhodochrosite (see Tobias´other thread) ... Germany is THE classic country for those species. It also has to do with the long tradition of mining and geognostic history of Germany (and also other central european countries) ..

If you had asked the poll question some years ago i would have answered with Belgium as No. 1 (as i collected at La Calamine twice every week) ;) and Germany as No. 2 (Stolberg/Rhld., my second collecting place then).

cheers
Roger

P.S. maybe we should do a poll on the favourite locality instead of the country ...
P.P.S. .. and as with all polls the results are only a snapshot ... and volatile at least if i look at my fav list ;-)

[Jim Prentiss]

Hello Folks,

Well I find it rather difficult to decide, my criteria is species variety and quality (in my collection). I am going to exclude the US. Here they are in order of preference at this time.

Pakistan
Russia
Australia
Bolivia
Germany
Morocco
Chile
Peru
Canada
China
Mexico

And hoorable mention goes to:

Antarctica
Mongolia
Iran
Japan
Cuba

Jim Prentiss

[Jordi Fabre]

[alfredo]

I don't use the term "nationalistic" in a political sense, just mineralogical ;))

My top 10 interesting mineral countries are based not on what actually produces the best specimens, but rather on where I went myself, met nice people and had a good time! (Many countries might have "better" minerals, like Afghanistan, Namibia, Germany, etc, etc, but I haven't gotten interested in them yet due to lack of personal experience.)

1) Japan
2) Bolivia
3) Spain
4) Argentina
5) California
6) Ethiopia
7) Ontario
8) Quebec
9) Bohemia
10) Paraguay

[mmauthner]

Like Alfredo, I would base my list on personal collecting trips rather than what is available. My favourites so far:

Canada (Yukon Territory)
Canada (British Columbia)
USA (California)
Canada (Northwest Territories/Nunavut)
USA (Washington)
Romania...way too much fun collecting ridiculously crude quartz crystals by flashlight!
USA (Arizona)

On the hit list for a very long time but haven't made it yet:

Brazil
Sri Lanka
Morocco

[Peter Megaw]

This sounds like fun and it's so easy since all i collect in Mexico

Mexico
Mexico
Mexico
Mexico
Mexico
Mexico
Mexico
Mexico
Mexico
Mexico

All kidding aside, I love and appreciate things from all over, I just eliminate the need to own them. Since I love ore minerals and secondary base metal oxides...with associated gangue...the list becomes

Mexico
Peru
USA
Namibia
Australia
China
Russia
UK
Eastern Europe (together about the size of one of the above on a good day)
Germany

[chris]

1- Bulgaria
2- USA
3- France
4- Portugal
5- Bolivia
6- China
7- Russia

But for me having a specimen with a sought combination is more important than the country of origin.

Christophe

[Tobi]

I'm glad to have initiated such an interesting discussion ;-) Of course i agree to Alfredo's point that most collectors have a preference for their home country. (And i directly understood that "nationalistic" was meant in a mineralogical sense, not in a political ;-))

But i also have to agree to Roger's argument that this also depends on the geological preconditions of each country. As Roger said: When he loves pyromorphite and rhodochrosite, then Germany offers many must-haves for him, no matter if he is German or not. And i think that collectors from mineral-rich countries like U.S, Germany, UK, Spain, France, Canada, Brazil, Switzerland etc. rather collect their "home minerals" than those whose countries don't have large amounts of collectible minerals (e.g. Denmark or Netherlands).

In my case, the role of Germany as country of origin differs with every collection focus that i have: I like fluorite and calcite, and Germany is (together with many other countries) a paradise for those minerals; but i also like garnets and tourmalines, which are only minor minerals in my home country ...

... But if we really exclude each one's home country from the list, i have to decide between Madagascar and Peru to get among my top ten ;-)

Cheers!

[Debbie Woolf]

I'm like Alfedo, I do not have a single specimen from the UK, my favourites that I collect are:

Namibia
South Africa

[Jordi Fabre]

Tobias, how about this?:

[Montanpark]

Hi again all,
;-) of course i did not read the term "nationalistic" in a political way and i did understand Alfredo very well ;) ... and it may be a valid point that collectors prefer their home country, but in my specific and personal case some german localities are essential to my collection. So it would be difficult to delete it as an important part of my collection wouldn´t be represented. Maybe switch my no 1 and 2 Tobias, so everybody is happy LOL.

I still would favour a poll about specific localities and not countries. Tobias, maybe you start it (as you´re the "poll-master" ;) ) .. or i could if you all agree...

cheers
Roger

[Jordi Fabre]

[Gail]

U.K.!!!
Then all others....

[Joan Kureczka]

Well, it would probably be in this order:

Northern England
California
Afghanistan/Pakistan

Russia
Burma

After that, it goes all over because much of the focus for me is tourmaline and fluorite, wherever they may come from.

[Tobi]

Jordi (and all others),

when i started this topic i had no specific intention on whether this should be a poll vote or just an open discussion, so i'm amenable for any kind of negotiation ;-)

We can keep this an open discussion and we can also make a poll with a final result out of it. I can take care and evaluate the results, no problem. The problem is that not everybody has a ranking or a list of countries; some only collect special species regardless of origin, while others only concentrate on one country. So if we make a poll, maybe we should agree about a procedure. My idea is: Everybody names at least one country (at most 10) and we count how often each country is listed. So Gail's vote would e.g. be the U.K., Peter Megaw's would be Mexico (counting only once and not ten times ;-)) and Alfredo's would be Japan and Bolivia. But what to do with Joan's vote? Counting "Northern England" as U..K, California as U.S., Afghanistan/Pakistan as one point for each one?! It's not easy to decide and to make a poll here.

And we finally have to decide whether the home country counts or not. If we cancel Germany on my and Roger's vote, i suppose he wouldn't be happy because he describes German minerals as essential for his collection. And what if Andreas Gerstenberg (who only collects German minerals) gives a vote, shall we ignore him? ;-)

So there are many open questions. If we really want to make a poll, we should agree before about the points i mentioned. I posted this open for all in this thread because i think everyone should have a chance to say if he considers a poll worthwhile or not.

Best regards to all so far and thanks for an animated discussion on an unnecessary topic ;-)

[Joan Kureczka]

Polls assume a sort of value judgement that, as Tobias's post points out, isn't appropriate or valuable in many cases due to the many ways in which people collect. So it's probably worth just keeping this as an interesting discussion.

[Jean Sendero]

Hey,

Mexico, what else? Mexico 9 more times.

Cheers

Jean