I think it could easily be from Peru, but wasn't familiar enough with German localities to know if the label had a chance of being correct (or close).  I suppose there could be many worldwide localities with pyritohedral crystals on quartz.  It will have to be labeled as unknown for now.

Thanks, Uwe.  I am suspicious that this is the case.  I don't think the label can be greater than 10 years old.  But I am still left wondering, because there are no pyrite photos from the locality shown when I follow the link above, so I have no comparative pyrites from ...

Back side of matrix.

Third angle.

Another angle on the specimen.

Hello all, I recently acquired this pyrite specimen that was labeled as "Kautenbach Mine, Hunsruck, Germany".  The Kautenbach Mine, Kautenbach, Traben-Trarbach, Traben-Trarbach, Bernkastel-Wittlich, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany does have pyrite listed, but there are no example ...

I don't know if they are still on the lookout for some of these stolen specimens, but I just saw a lot of 400+ Bunker Hill pyromorphites pop up on eBay. It could be completely legitimate and unrelated, but I thought it was worth bringing attention to in light of the above theft.

Dissolution of an entire crystal might take longer, but (perhaps especially for actively growing crystals such as can be collected at the Great Salt Plains Wildlife Refuge here in Oklahoma) it doesn't take nearly as long to simply damage the luster.

Here is a photo of the back side of the specimen, which is covered with manganoan adamites crystals (they are purple even though the color doesn't show well).

I bought a piece a few years back that is very similar to yours, Cat. Discoidal (tabby) adamites associated with manganoan adamite on gossan matrix from the Ojuela Mine (see attached photos). After reading this thread, I enquired about the identification of the tabby crystals from the dealer ...

I'm a little late to this thread, but I can share my experiences cleaning the Salt Plains selenite crystals. They are extremely sensitive to water (including distilled water), and any attempt I've made to clean them that way can result in a noticeable dulling of the luster. Pure speculation, but ...

Thanks, Dan!

That's a pretty neat epimorph, Dan. Today's favorite is a cute little celestite crystal from an old find at the White Rock Quarry, Clay Center, OH.

Nice to see some new posts here. This is a perennial favorite of mine. Doubly-terminated quartz with fantastic luster and a three-phase inclusion in the tip - collected in 2012 near Broken Bow, Oklahoma, USA.

I have two that I purchased from the late Chris Wright a few years ago. They look very similar to the one posted by Bill, showing a more irregular shape than the one in Matt's photo. I would share photos, but most of my collection is still boxed up from a recent move. I do not doubt the ...

Susan, that's a good question. In my opinion, there's no line between "self-collecting" and mining. After all, one can collect in a mine. As long as the specimen was personally extracted by its owner, that fits my definition of self collected. The fuzziness starts with your collecting partner - ...

Of course micros count! They are always the most perfect crystals.

I thoroughly enjoyed the recent supplement, and appreciate all who published their beautiful specimens. Every collector who published clearly put thought and care into the pieces they selected to represent their collections, and it's fascinating to see the pieces selected to represent their ...

Thanks, Reiner, I did not know that. I guess siderite still works, which makes sense from the locality. After re-reading Donald's original instructions, I guess I missed the word "hot"!

Here is the second specimen, whose ID is now in question. Individual brown crystals with a brassy iridescent lustre on calcite, which has grown around a group of these same crystals with an overall rhomohedral or cubic shape (possibly a pseudo after something else?). These crystals don't show the ...

Donald, thanks for the suggestion. I knocked a small one off the periphery of the specimen and put it in HCl, figuring that would seal the deal, but got no reaction. I tested a somewhat similar piece from another specimen in the same lot that I was fairly certain was siderite, which also did not ...

Hello all, I came across some micro crystals on the backside of a combo piece from Naica recently. The crystals are orange-ish in color, appear to be rhomohedral, and are somewhat translucent. They are associated with macro crystals of calcite (possibly manganocalcite since it fluoresces red), ...

We've had an explosion of gray tree frogs in our backyard in the last few weeks. Here are some juveniles hiding in the leaves of our plumerias, and an adult I caught hiding behind one of the downspouts. Photo Photo

Alexander, that's a beautiful piece of pietra paesina marble! I'd never seen one with the fracture pattern that complex - looks almost like a faceted stone.

Patricia, If you were at The Llano Uplift Rock Shop (Enchanted Rocks and Jewelry in Llano), you probably met up with Frank Rowell, one of the owners, not Frank Roberts (owner/operator of Baringer Hill Minerals out of Austin, which was mentioned in a post above). Both Frank's are great guys, and ...

Very sad, indeed. We had the pleasure of stopping by his shop once on a recent road trip, where we had a similar experience to Darren's, including the invitation to view his personal collection. A true gentleman, which is a rarity these days - our thoughts and payers for his family and friends.

Very cool photos of calcite crystallizing on an unfortunate butterfly at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. Photos were taken six years ago by a friend who had closeup access doing grad school research on the hot springs. Apparently the mineralization is mainly aragonite close to ...

Gene, Thanks for the thorough investigation, it's nice to see the visual proof. Thanks for sharing that digital protractor as well - nifty tool which I will definitely download and make use of.

Congrats, Ian, nice find!

I finally got a friend to take a decent photo of this micro - one of my favorites for a while. It is an Olivenite crystal grown directly over a small crystal of Zeunerite from the Majuba Hill Mine. Looking through the microscope, it looks like an eye looking back at you.:-) It was collected by ...

David, This is a typical look for intergrown faces of quartz that I've seen from other localities. Often quartz faces look similar, even when the crystal it was contacted with is of another mineral like feldspar. This last type I once heard referred to as compression quartz, but I don't think ...

This is a fascinating discussion, and it seems that questions have arisen about every photo put forward with the exception of the Romero twin mentioned by Philip. Here is a Mindat photo of that piece - any thoughts? The amethyst coloration seems to be present down to the twin plane.

One more of a Roseate Spoonbill nest with fledglings.

Last weekend we had the pleasure of being taken to see a spectacular rookery of roseate spoonbills, egrets, and anhingas with hundreds of birds nesting in two huge cypress trees growing in an abandonded meander loop. Here are some of the better photos I managed with our little point-and-shoot. I ...

Frank, Thanks for a great day of collecting yesterday! I haven't had much time to go through everything, but it turns out I did have a small topaz in my little pile of "possibles" from yesterday. It's a small (1.3cm long) colorless crystal with etched faces. It didn't come from the pocket ...

We found this little female warbler (I think a yellowthroat warbler) dazed and frightened outside a storefront during a major thunderstorm a few weeks ago while the spring migrants were traveling through Texas. She rode home with us and recovered enough on the way to fly off from our backyard.

Beautiful, Rudolf. Congratulations!

Great stuff, Andrew & Frank! Wonderful to see some real Texas collecting again thanks to Frank. Frank, did you get my recent PM? Hoping to arrange a collecting visit if I can.

Bruce, I think that you have an agate nodule there. The color/texture is the spitting image of some of the Alpine area plume agates in buckets in my garage. When the agate nodules do not completely fill the voids left behind by gas bubbles in the magma from the volcanics in the area, the tops ...

Here is one more photo, as well as two photos of backsides of the specimens showing the partial coating on dark oxidized burned-looking pyrite. Photo Photo They look more like splash copper in my opinion rather than electrolytically grown like the copper on epidote fakes from China ...

Ken, yes that is absolutely the same type of piece that is under discussion - some of mine have the same gold label. Here are some photos of three different pieces. The pieces are mostly solid pyrite crystals on massive pyrite with little to no attached matrix or other minerals (with the ...

I saw these "Bisbee" coppers on pyrite three years ago at Tucson, and bought a few because I'm interested in mineral fakes. The dealer who had them at Tucson had purchased them from an old local Arizona collection, and I don't really doubt this since they were mounted in the old glued-to-styrofoam ...

Philip, fantastic piece! Enjoyed your article as well.

Happy New Year, everyone - wonderful specimens! Here is a piece that was a Christmas gift and is my favorite today. This is the best photo I could manage while away from home. Smoky quartz plate with Calcite from Deer Lodge Co., Montana, USA, 14 x 13.5 cm. (1/2/2013 - Correction: I tested the ...

Greg, Very interesting - looking forward to some reports on your results.

Dermot, Don't use Oxalic on this piece (or acid on any sulfide mineral in general). It won't harm the beryl, but will attack the pyrite. Better to use Super Iron Out if you can get it, which should work just fine for both minerals. See the thread on cleaning quartz for instructions on Super ...

Hello Øyvind, I have a Dremmel engraving tool that I bought for pretty much the exact same purpose you describe. It has served me quite well as a very inexpensive substitute for the more high-end tools. The tip is just held in place by a screw, so you can easily replace it with any other tip ...

Amazing wulfenite, Valere! Nice malachite formations on your Morenci specimen, Michael. My favorite today - another Montana piece collected this May. Calcite from Gallatin County. 15.5 x 10 cm.

Rock Currier Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Jonathan, > I have placed the image of your specimen in the > Best Minerals article on Quartz, USA, Colorado to > Montana. What can you tell us about the locality > and the quartz specimens it produces to go ...

Rock, Absolutely! Will do right away. It's listed under the Delmoe Lake area.