Favorite Self-Collected Specimens

Phil, that piece conjures visions of the Rolling Stones tongue logo! LOL

Jay- that Stibnite is awesome

next up is a common mineral - found in the mid 1990's from the South Wales Quarry of Ton Mawr near Cardiff. I love the secondary overgrowths of both Rhombohedral crystals on one side and a partial regrowth/ overgrowth of the main Scalenohedral crystal on the opposite side. the specimen is approx. 7cms high



cheers, Colleen

Andradite, var. Melanite
San Benito Co., CA USA

This was one of the most exciting days of our collecting experience. We hit a pocket, in 1970, that produced hundreds of pieces, ranging from TN to large cabinet size. This is the specimen that I kept for myself, though not the best of the lot. It is 8 cm X 11 cm and the largest crystal measures 1.8 cm across. The largest crystal found measured 2.3 cm. The largest specimen, collected by a friend and I, was approximately 25 cm X 20 cm and was covered with large crystals. It now resides in the Los Angeles County Museum.
Gene



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2011 12:33AM by Mineralogical Research Company.

Gene,
What an experience that must have been! I have never seen a melanite nearly that nice from the locality, which suggests I am highly overdue for a visit to the LA Museum.

I'm really impressed with the quality of everyone's postings, I'm sure each and every specimen was brought to light with that certain thrill that finding something great brings. On the other hand, if anyone is reluctant to contribute because they think their favorite doesn't measure up, I urge them to reconsider.

One of my favorite self-collected specimens was from the Rutherford Mine, in Amelia, Virginia. In 1979, I was digging in the dumps, and this octahedral crystal measuring about 1 1/4 inches on an edge rolls right into the bottom of my excavation. I knew immediately that it was a microlite crystal, with a columbite crystal protuding from one of its faces.

This is one of my favorite specimens that I collected when I was a teenager. [www.mindat.org] My father and I found the best galena specimens ever to come out of Dundas. The one featured on Mindat from the ROM was also collected by me and my father. All of them had to be etched out of calcite with acid.

Collecting Indiana Geodes, being retired, and living in the immediate area, I have the opportunity to self collect quite often. Over the past 20+ years I have collected some very fine examples. This millerite on blue chalcedony (microcrystalline quartz) with calcite is one of my favorites. It measures about 6cm x 6cm x6cm with some crystal filaments measuring a full 5cm long. It is considered one of the finest Indiana millerites found in the last 25 years and has been displayed several times. It was found laying on the roadside as a whole geode ("field collecting" may be a bit of a stretch when picking up rocks on the roadside!) at the Harrodsburg roadcuts in Monroe County, Indiana and opened in April of 2005.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2011 11:31AM by BOB HARMAN.

Bob,

Absolutely stunning!!!

Dave

This is Sphalerite collected at Cornwall PA Iron mines, over in the dumps. Collected Oct. 2011.
The crystals average 7 to 8mm the largest 13mm.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2011 02:15PM by charles bailey.

One more that will give away my age.


This 80lb block of Orbicular Jasper was self collected around 1957. It measures approx. 10"X12"X12".

Gene

I'm working and living in China since more than 5 years now. Needless to say, my job as a tunnel expert for the new high-speed railway lines offers great opportunities for collecting. Nevertheless, the first 4 years were not very successful in this respect (only some large nice calcites and some pyrite). Last year I had to change to Fujian province, and after the first accidental findings of quartzes, small ferberites, and especially fluorites now I feel like in "fluorite heaven". Of course, the chance to find something, when supervising and advising 37 tunnels, is big. 5 of the tunnels, as well as quarries around our construction sites yield numberless specimens up to now. Some of my favorites are attached: glassy ice-blue fluorites from Wudun quarry (X size to 1 cm), ink-blue fluorite (3 cm complex X and botryoidal ones) and 2-3 cm clear Quartz XX from Baimashan tunnel, purple fluorites (partly zoned) with pyrite, quartz, and platy calcites from Chengnan tunnel, pink fluorite (XX 2 cm) from a roadcut near Wuyishan. I'm sorry for the bad picture quality, but try to enjoy!

And here some more from my new finds in China/Fujian

...and the last one from "Fluorite Heaven"!

Nice greetings from Wuyishan

Excellent variety of finds and experiences. One thing I've found true, whether the find was easy or difficult, if it was good you will remember everything about the experience. Here's a molybdenite I found back in 1990 at the large but largely barren pegmatite quarry in he White Rocks district of Middletown, Connecticut, USA. They were scarce but didnt require much work other than careful searching of the relatively small part of the quarry where the occurred. We figured we'd collect them for years, but the quarry closed in 1992 and is now filled in.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2011 07:03AM by Rock Currier.

This is a "plate" matrix specimen, chiselled off the side of a small miarolitic cavity in granite, from the Devil's Den area of the Sawtooth Mountains, Boise County, Idaho. It shows the "essential' minerals of the granite (smoky quartz, microcline, and albite), with accessory minerals zinnwaldite mica and topaz. The specimen was removed with a single hammer blow right after the second picture was taken, which shows the prominent feldspar crystal at the top of the plate on the right side of the exposed vug (hammer for scale).




William C. (CHRIS) van Laer: "I'm using the chicken to measure it..."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2012 04:36PM by William C. van Laer.

This is a difficult thread to post to as the vast majority of my specimens are self-collected, so to select just one is a very daunting task. However, for today's offering, I decided to post a specimen that normally one would not expect from the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan, an area known for its rich native copper deposits. This fluorite (green) on calcite (white) was collected a few years ago from near Eagle River in Keweenaw County. Very few crystalised specimens were found from this location. The specimen measures about 7 cm across with the fluorite being 2.5 cm across.

A neat little specimen from an unusual location...

Someone should edit a book on these amazing finds!. For a novice like me, it was extremely interesting to hear how folks actually find these specimens.I really appreciated reading this thread. Thank you one and all.
John

Here is one of the first Aquamarine specimens I found at Torrington, NSW, Australia many years ago. It came out of a small pocket in solid smoky quartz, down an old wolfram mine shaft. It measures 4cm tall.

© www.australiancrystals.com.au

As a long-time field collector, I also find it hard to single out any one piece, having found so many pockets over the past 35 years....here is a "phantom" smoky quartz crystal....the pocket that this was found in was missed by another collector, who found one of these gems and his efforts were to excavate a small hole about 2 inches deep and over an area the size of a football....I visited the site a few weeks after and dug in where he had left off, and found a six foot long pocket of these....this one measures 6.0 x 2.2 x 1.9 cm. overall.


William C. (CHRIS) van Laer: "I'm using the chicken to measure it..."

This is no longer in my possession, but it has a very happy home north of here.

Calcite, Devil's Corral area, Hycroft Mine Complex, Sulphur Mining District, Humboldt Co., Nevada. 'fishtail' twin, approx. 5 cm tall.





Cheers,

Steve