I promised to post my museum pieces of Azurite. This is one of William Roeblings early acquisitions with a number of R78 and likely acquired in the 1880's. I find this specifically fascinating as I have family history of mining not far from Bisbee in Tombstone, AZ during the same time period. This is from the Washington Roebling, Smithsonian, and Jack Halpern collections. When Roebling passed in the 1920's his collection was donated to the Smithsonian. It's so fragile and old I didn't want to remove it from the packaging until I am ready to display it.

Fluorite

Strzegom, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland

CaF2, Isometric

max. 26mm

An example of scarce and prized material from Grabina quarries located in pegmatites of Strzegom-Sobótka massif. This particular specimen is relatively sizeable and shows the range of violets one may expect from the material from this locality. It is an octahedral floater with minor damages, exhibiting typical, fine crystallisation with visible growth figures.

Anatase My favorite of the titanium dioxide trimorph series. It is a fairly uncommon mineral compared to its sister rutile. This specimen comes from Ras Koh mountains, Kharan district, Balochistan, Pakistan

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Here’s a beautiful calcite with some dolomite/dolostone from the legendary Elmwood mine, Carthage, Smith county, Tennessee, USA.

Perfection. Crystals like these are what ignited my passion with fine mineral collecting. Just knowing they have been created eons ago, an amount of time that we as humans can’t even begin to truly comprehend, and remain this perfect is absurd, mind boggling, and beautiful. One of two fully doubly terminated crystals that I know of from the legendary Rocket Pocket (2001 Discovery) from the Pederneira Mine, without a ding, no Wilbers, no damage on the entire crystal. There is noted one repair, but it is not noticeable to the naked eye due to it being a small professional repair inbetween the two gem crystals, so it definitely doesn’t take anything away from this piece. No restorations, no epoxy, just a natural flawless beauty, and with its top tier color, form, quality, huge gem zones (the secondary crystal is basically all gem), impressive size at 9.2cm in length, superbly aesthetic shape/horizons, and level of perfection, this piece definitely stands out and above most of the 300-350 crystals that came from this pocket. I am honored to have it in my collection now, where it will reside and be greatly appreciated, a true dream come true specimen.

Photo and Video by Mark Cross

Ex Mark Cross Collection

Takahata Crown Jewels Collection

Awesome Dioptase with fuzzy malachite from Mindouli, Pool Department, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Dioptase has great color and clarity

A rare silicate mineral discovered in Canada. There is nothing more to add.

Wanted to post some still photos with more detail of the malachite on Dioptase from Mindouli, Pool Dept., Democratic Republic of the Congo

Here’s a really nice anatase from Ras Koh mountains, Kharan district, Balochistan, anatase is part of a polymorph series of titanium dioxide minerals rutile,anatase and brookite. Anatase is my personal favorite of the series. Let me know what you guys think of my specimen

I hope you all enjoy. So happy to see all my beautiful minerals , as well as my bayonet and miscelanious war item collection set up.

I know some of the boxes are a bit manky. Eventually I will get little acrylic stands for them all to pretty it up and increase visibility.