If it is too fine a dust or you don't find anything, and you're still in the dead of winter, you can go to the stores that sell bags of sand and buy a bag of sand and pan it. I've done that partly out of curiosity, and partly out of boredom / desperation for something mineral, and I'm not alone. ...

Kristi, thus sounds similar to people going out and collecting beach glass. That can be made into jewelry or just collected into a jar, but there are people who have tumbled glass in a tumbler to make it look like beach glass and maybe try to sell it as beach glass. And if that's not done very ...

Kevin, it is probably black mica, usually called biotite mica. If you look at a rudimentary picture book it will show you all the most common rocks in the Earth and approximately what they look like. There might be a page on mindat that does the same I haven't looked lately. You'll understand what ...

Kevin, most rocks are iron stained so don't show whats really inside. You need to crack them open, and what you have there are certainly expendable samples, so hammer away. Make sure you protect your eyes, I can't stress that enough, and have a proper hammer, absolutely not the kind for nails. ...

Yes, Raymond, ditto. Thank-you for adding that information. I appreciate it, and this whole discussion and forum.

What was most striking to me was how unweathered these cavities were. Most rocks on the ground are so thoroughly weathered their vugs consist mainly of quartz, iron minerals and drab, iron stained clays. In ones from the beach or quarry, the 'freshness' of the mineralization is striking. How could ...

Paul, yeah, probably obsessionish, if that's a word, lol. ALL are rounded, nothing angular. The Thelen gravel and sand quarry by Antioch, Illinois supplied a couple of boulders. Finding mica prisms in them was a big surprise, since what I had collected from the beach didn't have them. I would ...

No Larry no Quarries of red granite. We could wish! There was just a gravel Quarry I had access to one of them through an ex-employee. So if you scour Southern Wisconsin and even further afield, you might turn up more of them. I have stopped at a couple of Landscape Suppliers to see if they perhaps ...

Fuss, the red granite that was "vuggy" was a great thrill to find. Lots of micro fluorite, some a real gemmy blue. Sure, mostly feldspar inside, but keep looking. I expanded my search from just the beach to accessing local quarry rock and some that was just decorating yards of friends of mine. They ...

Alfredo I thought your concluding comment in your earlier post was hilarious and also too I plan on may be unloading some of my collection at a flea market. And Doug your comments are amusing also. Lead is a contaminant but Galena is not. I don't know that anyone ever living around the Galena ...

Hiro, you might sell the micros along with their photographs? There is a display of micros-with-photos at the Arizona University museum, a clever display. But alas, I'm afraid most low end minerals end up adding nutrients to the soil...

Barry, do you have a microscope? Lake Michigan beaches that are more gravel/rock, not all sand, may have 'cool stuff', especially the red granites that wash down from Wisconsin, if they are vuggy. I used to live north of there, the Zion/Kenosha area.

I prefer to 'putter around' as Rolf said, because I'm "older" now. But micros do it for me. Some pretty ones can be found in the weathered grounds as well as in tailings. I recently found in old tailings nearby, a tetrahexahedral Fluorite micro. Very tiny, but under the scope, all lit up, ...

Reb, can you eventually get to a mineral club, show, or store, and handle some baryte? You'll know immediately how it differs from quartz.

Peter, sure looks like rugged terrain in a hostile environment...

Mr. Schoefield, I enjoyed your essay very much. Comprehensive and concise. Personally, I'd add...brilliant.

Thanks for the info, contributors. I recently moved to T or C, so have now more locales to suss out, however cautiously. I could only catch Saturday at the symposium, but that left me ' full'. Thanks again.

Showing them microns, with good sized photos of what they look like could help stimulate interest, or some of Mindats Potds?

Michael, from my beach/rock hammering experience, I'd say you need not fear dust. Grinding on the other hand, is dusty and becomes dangerous breathing, but hammering silicates mostly leaves grit, not dust. Eye protection is far more important for the shards of chert, etc... And what volume of ...

Alfredo, I really appreciate what you say. Facing a move soon, ill be downsizing my collection, which isn't real scientifically important anyway. And the work and angst of where to put each piece in its place, especially the exceptions and oddities, is only fun when I'm not tired! I do enjoy ...

Prasad, if you are not sure about quartz, may I suggest you get a beginners book on rocks and minerals. Even some children's books are excellent for starters. To me, this hobby demands a lot of reading, but the more you learn, the more you'll appreciate it.

Don, If you are an old codger lumper rather than an old codger splitter you will have fewer misidentifieds (probably not a word) I'm sure. It's just a day in the life of a Micromounter.

Vinegar is very gentle it can take a couple of days. But dilute hydrochloric acid, the vapors will rust any medal around, and any touching of the water with the dilute acid on clothing will rot clothing. Only use it outdoors. Your sample looks like slag, the amount of that that is around on ...

How do you know these finds are ancient? Not-so-old slag is almost everywhere. One beach near me, I quit going to look for minerals; Too much slag there.

From your picture dated May 28, you need at least a loupe to inspect it, but you are on your way! That one may be a "dud", most are, but keep looking. These things take time.

Try an acid or vinegar test? Looks like your probably correct, to me.

Are they from a stream bed or beach? They look water tumbled. They are quite shiny but sometimes that just means they can be extremely fine grained. Crack one or two open and let's see a fresh surface. If they're not leaving a streak they may be a very fine grain silicate, one more iron than ...

Wow, Alfredo! Thank you very much! Jeff, the first picture after "colorful/interesting", did you notice how the white part of that rock is in a depression? Because it is a softer mineral, it has weathered more. I'd be fairly certain it is calcite, and dissolving that may reveal micro crystals ...

Jeff, Try dissolving the Calcite veins to see if nice micro xls are inside. You may start with a loupe, but you'll want a microscope soon enough. Also, anything you see with a dimpled surface, hammer open to see if cavities are inside. You'll get a lot of clays and dull stuff, but some nice ...

Mike I walk the beaches of Lake Michigan near me and I found a feldspar that was about that color bluish looked about the size of a potato, I have a picture of it on my home page photos. Yours is naturally much finer grained. Like yours, it was very distinctive as beach rocks go. Can you take a ...

thank you Larry for the term Freestone to describe the beach, I wondered if it had a name. I see you put it in quotes So maybe it's not an official designation but thanks just the same.

Scott this is a long shot I have never tried it but I've thought about it I just haven't spent the money on a geiger counter. But I walk the shore of Lake Michigan and what washes up on shore can be from any of a number of places maybe something that washes up someday would be able to register on ...

Nice, Rolf. Is that copper under the opal giving it that color?

To me the color does seem suspicious, unless that is just the lighting this time. And Michael, your attitude is great. I still feel the 'can't wait' excitement, and it has been about 9 years for me. But do you suppose it is possible you found something thrown away and therefore not a natural ...

Ditto Alfredo's post. When you can't go to a show or travel to a collecting site you can possibly find micros anywhere there are gravels- disturbed ground, beaches, parking lots, etc..All you need after getting the scope is a mash hammer and goggles. Just bring the rocks home of course! Wearing ...

Brett, How would a glacier make a diamond look like quartz? I'm not sure I understand your point. Mike

Sounds like you nailed it with your last sentence. The colors are probably just dirt andiron stains don't you think?

Matt, Feldspar weathers into clay, so that is probably what it is. I can't see it that well, but then, clay is that way. The orange is iron staining, I would assume. Iron stains everything, and it is amazing how many different colors it can take. Clays can be yellow, orange, and red, and ...

Sean, Are you familiar with black dolomite from Teruel, Spain? I don't know what causes the color. http://www.mindat.org/min-11145.html

This is maybe a long shot, but I just had my carpets cleaned yesterday and they pre-spray with an 'enzyme'. Might that help?

"symbolic price"?? Not exactly English!

Ofri, If you click 'advanced search' on the Mindat home page, you'll see 'glossary.' Enter each word and it'll explain... Offhand, I have described a geode as separating from the rock that it is found in, whereas a vug is any cavity in a rock, it doesn't have a 'rind' that you can separate ...

Andrew, I don't think it is lost, as much as, you've said all that can be said. It is a problem, no real solution humans can implement, and on a web site, anyone can loudly respond in agreement with you, while even being one of the pillagers of private sites. Mindat is more a site for ...

Ed makes a good point; I have found herringbone magnetite, cone-in-cone calcite, barite blades in a vug, and a number of other curious pieces,all in 'parking lot medians.' Pack your loupe! Mindat won't accept "Menard's Parking Lot" as a location even if you capitalize it, but it is still a fun ...

Stephanie, I would suggest Illinois Beach State Park, Zion, Il., the south unit, for a long walk on a beach strewn with thumb to fist sized rock from all over the place, from everywhere that feeds into Lake Michigan, which is a lot! You will mostly find micros, I hope you are into those, since ...

Rolf, I haven't looked through Mindats' photos, but are there xls with the Jamesonite protruding? Particularly from that locale? That would make for one delicate piece, one you sure wouldn't take 'on tour' with you!

Ralph, I suspect that is his point, thus the added symbols to his statement. Looking into Theodore Grays "The Elements," it says Tc exists in "vanishingly small amounts in certain pitchblende ores" so I suppose one could add a sample of pitchblende to the chart and hope an atom or two ...

Harjo, micros are endlessly amazing, and that is a fine collection of 'what's out there,' as well as superb photography. This makes an excellent sample for showing 'why we are into this' to others, as per a recent thread on the subject. Thanks!

Ed, you made a valid point, I appreciate it. I learned what Luca mentioned too, but take a different tack. I was given a pricey one dollar piece from a garage sale, an amethyst in a wood stand, nicer that the 'chunk' I had, and it went into my cabinet,along with some better stuff, of course. ...

Monika, Good timing on asking this. I tell people I'm 'into rocks' to start off, and add 'there are sometimes tiny cavities in the rocks that hold beautiful crystals.' Most people go 'oh.' And that's about it. I was emailed some nice photos of anatase, chlorite, and a few others just ...