My favorite thumbnail.

A masterful thumbnail specimen, created at the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research and presented as a gift to Martin Jensen in 1990. How I lusted after this beauty, now mine forever!

67A-U9HTeineite Cu²⁺(Te⁴⁺O₃)·2H₂O , Hessite Ag₂Te

Trixie Mine, East Tintic Mining District, Utah County, Utah, USA

Field of View: 3 mm

An elongated, electric blue orthorhombic crystal of teinite protruding from a quartz vug. The hand specimen has small, spongy masses of native gold (not in image), greyish hessite, and several unidentified phases such as the pale green crusty mineral that is also prominent in the vug. Excalibur Mineral Corp. specimen, and image by Robert Fung.

GC5-53WStilbite-Ca NaCa₄(Si₂₇Al₉)O₇₂·28H₂O , Calcite CaCO₃

Christmas Mine, Christmas, Banner Mining District, Gila County, Arizona, USA

Field of View: 6 mm

Pale salmon-colored radiating sheaves of stilbite-(Ca) surrounding a pocket with transparent calcite crystals. Both species were analytically confirmed in our lab (SEM/EDS). An apophyllite group mineral was also observed (not in image) but unable to confirm whether F or (OH) dominant with EDS. Excalibur Mineral Corporation specimen, and image by Robert Fung.

Salt Production Cards - Various Localities

Germany

German chemist Justus Von Liebig (the mineral namee for the hydrous calcium-uranium carbonate liebigite) developed and published a method for producing a concentrated beef extract in 1847. Some fifteen years later, an investment group was formed, and with Liebig’s agreement, started a company to commercially produce his extract in Uruguay. Sold in opaque white bottles under the name Veritable Extrait de Viande Liebig (Liebig’s True Beef Extract), the thick, salty beef extract was widely used throughout Europe and the United States, recommended as a staple for soldiers during the American Civil War, and it was still in use as an Oxo bullion cube as late as WWII. In 1872, his Liebig Company (Antwerp) began to produce elaborate trading cards to popularize its brand. Those shown above depicted various aspects of salt mining and production, with the reverse side of the card offering a cooking recipe that utilized the product which contained about 4% salt. The left column cards (top to bottom) represent: a) solar evaporation ponds along the Mediterranean; b) the underground mine at Wieliczke, Poland; c) the brine cooling tower for the concentrators at Kosen, Prussia. The right column cards (top to bottom) show: a) pumping saline water from a deposit at Nauheim (Grand Duchy of Hesse); b) the evaporation works at Lunebourg in Hanover; c) the drier for salt at Lunebourg in Hanover.