pigs (miners) eggs do they still have value?

Pigs eggs, sometimes called miners eggs because the miners used to sell them for extra money are a pseudomorph. of orthoclase being kaolinite. As the miners obviously made a few pennies from them they must have had value once. Do they still retain some value?

Malcolm Chapman
England

those are interesting!!! where did those come from?

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A buena hambre no hay pan duro

Sometimes they do. The ones you show might bring a few dollars each retail at a gem and mineral show, perhaps a little more if they are large. You didn't indicate how large they are. Some of these are pseudomorphs after other minerals like after cassiterite or the German ones that have been altered to Topaz, and those will bring more. I have not heard the name "miners eggs" before. Do you know anything about the origin and history of this term? Anyone?

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

These examples come from a site near St Dennis in Cornwall. I was taken there by Maurice Grigg who worked his whole life for English China Clay and collected throughout. He must have had the best collection outside a museum of British minerals. His black quartz (morion) alone was unsurpassed by anything I have seen or even heard of. He found many minerals which were the only example found in England. He was an ambassador for ECC showing people like myself to many interesting sites.

When we collected these pseudomorphs he explained that they were commonly known as pigs eggs but also known locally as miners eggs because local miners used them for a supplementary income.

The samples are shown on the top of a 8oz coffee jar lid. Samples tend to be twinned around 5cm x 2cm. The black inclusion is mica. As a matter of interest, as the normal is twinned would singletons be worth more?

For those who knew Maurice I am trying to gather information and anecdotes about him. He died in 1997 and most of his collection was bought by British universities.

Malcolm Chapman
England



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2009 08:38PM by malcolm chapman.

pig's eggs are nice things, but not valuable.

that said, there are fewer and fewer places to collect them.

value £5-10, £20 if you know someone that wants one, or if you are prepared to wait - and wait - and wait:)

maurice - lovely guy. the sceptred black quartz that he had from the clay pits were, i thought, by far the best things in his collection. wish i had one!

The valuable ones are the cassiterite pseudomorphs after orthoclase from Wheal Coates near St Agnes. Those can reach several hundred dollars or more. I have seen a couple of US dealers get confused and try and charge those prices for these kaolinite pseudomorphs, but I imagine they're still in their inventories :)

Jolyon

I've always loved these classics. If you have some reasonably sharp examples for sale or trade, please drop me a note at dminerals@yahoo.com. And if you have the aforementioned cassiterite pseudos, I'd be even happier to trade, etc!!

Take care,
Dana

My uncle, Maurice Hawkins, lives in St Dennis (:D

Amanda

I see there is even a scenic tour of "Pigs Egg" country! [www.earthwords.fsnet.co.uk]

The China Clay museum is brill!

Amanda