FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Hello,

as announced in the following I will show you some pieces from my collection. The latter contains only minerals from Germany with the focus on some classic localities as for example Hagendorf/Bavaria, Freiberg and Schneeberg/Saxony or St. Andreasberg/Harz (about 4870 samples and exactly 1171 different minerals at the moment). I am collecting since 1991 (but just 25 years old so there are still some years of collecting to come, I hope).

I do not seek for absolute killer specimens (can´t effort them anyway, being poor student) but for reasonable stuff (in German you call it "Belegsammlung", I do not know the english expression). In terms of systematic minerals the aim is to get to a somehow completeness. For this I´m often smiled at and it got me the reputation collecting everything from everywhere... However, this is NOT the case;-) But the only one who gets the system is me, I think. Anyway, if you like to see a special mineral from a special German locality please tell me, may be I can be of help;-)

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

The label in particular.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

The next one is a cuty I bought some two weeks ago: free standing smoky quartz crystals (about 4 cm in height) from the famous location Bad Brambach, Voigtland, Saxony. Even Goethe was scrambling through the Brambach Granite looking for fine quartz crystals. I was searching a long time for a good old one which is not too expensive. This one satisfies me...

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Even collectors who do not know much about German minerals know these I presume: agate with amethyste from Oberschlottwitz, Erzgebirge, Saxony. The shown specimen measures about 22 cm in width and occurs from a find in 1984 near Roter Felsen in the Trebnitzgrund. At this time there was some mining going on to win decorative material for the Semper opera in Dresden and Sanssouci Parks in Potsdam.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Another very rare classic (but far not as famous as the Schlottwitz agates) is the so-called "black amethyste" - dark amethyste mixed with smoky quartz and a thin hematite layer from the Ratssteinbruch (quarry), Plauenscher Grund near Dresden, Saxony. This specimen (about 6 cm in width) is the only one I´ve ever seen to buy...

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

... and it wears a little old lable on its backside.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Now to something completely different... Perhaps one of the rarest specimens in my collection is this sample with redbrown hutchinsonite radials (up to 5 mm in diameter) in geokronite, greigite ("melnikovite-pyrite") and "Schalenblende" (variety of sphalerite) from Wiesloch. If I am correct, hutchinsonite is only known from its type locality (Lengenbach, Switzerland), Quiruvilca/Peru and Wiesloch near Heidelberg, Kraichgau, Baden-Wurttemberg. At the last mentioned locality hutchinsonite normally occurs in very thin reddish coatings between sphalerite layers. Radial aggregates like the shown ones are extremely rare. I do not know how much are existing but it is a fact that there are only a few...

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Pale violet translucent anhydrite crystal (5,5 cm in width) from the Konrad Shaft, Salzgitter-Bleckenstedt, Lower Saxony. The locality is famous for its celestites (some people say only sr-bearing barytes) but we see that also good anhydrites occured.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

And yet another one for the systematic-nuts: little white aggregates of fichtelite on peated conifer wood (9 cm in width) from the Zeitelmoos peat cut near Wunsiedel, Fichtelgebirge, Bavaria. Some literature gives this location as type locality but in fact the specimens from the Zeitelmoos are even much more rarely than these from the correct type locality Wampen.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Added the original label from the Freiberg Bergakademie, written by curator Otto E. Edelmann about 1935-1950.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Please do not eat: arsenolite on native arsenic from the type locality Katharina Neufang mine near St. Andreasberg, Harz. The micros measure about 3 to 3,5 cm each.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Good argentite crystals on wire silver (aggregate height 3,5 cm) from Himmelfahrt mine, Freiberg, Erzgebirge, Saxony.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Definitely not a killer but a nice historic ensemble: "Brauner Erdkobalt" (a mixture of pitticite and erythrite) on skutterudite from Könitz near Kamsdorf, Thuringia. With label in original box (10 cm in height) from the Senckenberg museum collection, Frankfurt/Main, about 1850.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

The Kohnstein gypsum quarry near Niedersachswerfen, Harz gave beautiful borates such as probertite or hydroboracite. A very rare mineral from this locality is aragonite, shown in stalagtitic aggregates on grey anhydrite. Sample 12 cm.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Freiberg/Saxony is famous for its great ore specimens. However, good pyrites are not that frequent here. The pic shows cubes up to 1,5 cm on ankerite from the Junge Hohe Birke mine.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Nice harmotome cross-twins on a 7 cm wide rich sample from the type locality St. Andreasberg, Harz. Old classic from the famous Max Hübler collection/Altenburg.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

With original label.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Natrolite from the type locality, the Hohentwiel mountain, Singen near Lake Constance, Baden-Württemberg. Picture width: 12 cm.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Massive green nontronite as a rich sample from the Roter Bär mine near St. Andreasberg, Harz. Sample 5,5 cm.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Ancient find: chalcopyrite with azurite and limonite as a polished section from the Kupferrose mine, Bad Lauterberg, Harz. Sample 7 cm.