The Last of the Mohicans ...

Just heard that the second micromounter quits his hobby here in Austria within a year. Not beginners but collectors for ages, not due to a health problem but just changed interests!

I`m still quite shocked and feel like the Last of the Mohicans.

Why is it that micromounting is dying?

I never got so many infos of good localities like now, in fact I should go to 10 places at the same time!
You needn`t go to different universities to copy old book like I had to do in my youth, you get it for free on the internet!
Concurrency is almost zero, you can collect freely on most places. Just phoned with a friend who read a published note from a locality, thought its all over now and realized he was the first one for ages there!

Our hobby is definitely dying, but why are the micromounters the first ones????

probably the delicacy and difficulty of micromounts people just don't have the patience for it these days to much flash in life. i love my thumbnail collection and a good microscope but some people don't like to spend the money on a good scope

I am less pessimistic than Christian; two people changing hobbies is not a statistically significant sample. You just have to look at the rapidly increasing number of great micromineral photographs on Mindat, Mineralienatlas (and even Facebook) to see that the number of people collecting microminerals, and the number of microscopes and micro photography setups in use, are increasing, not declining. Clubs and organizations are generally in decline (with a few happy exceptions), but this is a trend across the board in many parts of society, as more activities and social interactions shift to virtual venues on the internet rather than club venues. This social trend can certainly be viewed as a "change" but not necessarily a "decline".

Opposed to the feeling of Christian. I made the experience that the number of micomounter especially in Europe increases. To collect bigger specimens during field trips becomes more and more difficult and good specimens are very expensive on the market. I have a friend in Austria living in a mineralogical hotspot (he is one of the tenants of the Knappenwand) who changed more and more to collecting of micromounts during the last 10 years.

Don’t worry Christian. You are not the “last mohecan” but you are full in the trend of the time.

Uwe Ludwig

Christain, don't be dismayed. I went to the New England Micromounters Symposium for the first time this year. After seeing some the collection at Harvard Univ., which was presented by Dr. Carl Francis via slideshow, I was amazed by the potential one has to make a very respectable collection.
I think it's a bad time to be dropping out of Micromounting just before it's about to gain popularity.

It's comparable to selling off your stocks, before they triple in value.

Good luck, keep micromounting...

I`ll deffo keep on micromounting and I`m glad to hear that the situation is better in other countries than here.
To clarify it better let me tell you that we have some 1000 mines here in Austria where there was no micromount collector before, many high Alpine where you need a good knowledge and physical condition. Those mines and dumps would need some basic micromounting, means pioneer work.

So you need knowledge (of localities and weather, collecting and underground techniques and finally basic mineralogy), good physics and a lot of time for the work at home. Most lack in one of them, especially in time. Those who have the physical constitution who go up a mountain don`t have time to cut 100kg material into small pieces and check them under the scope, vice versa.

Its way easier to go to a mineral show on a weekend and buy a specimen you like. That`s the reason why there are less and less micromounters here.

You are very right, Christian, some aspects of the hobby require some hard work, diligence and effort. The rewards, while not monetary in nature, should provide ample satisfaction and a very nice collection!

I agree with Sam that this aspect of the hobby wil pick up in popularity. Especially as our favorite haunts close one by one due to greed and collecting ignorance.

MinRec had an article on the lack of interest in mineral clubs in general. While that may be the case, a 10% reduction across the board from general clubs through MM would mean that there will be many less micromounters around. Which just means more good stuff for less of us! X(



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/09/2011 08:15PM by Joe Mulvey.

Hallo,

also ich denke auch,dass es in Zukunft weiterhin Micromounter geben wird.Wenn auch vielleicht die Zahl der Sammler,
die sich mit Kleinstufen befassen abnimmt,wird sicher der Micromount ein wichtiger Bestandteil des Mineralien-
sammelns bleiben.Schon allein die vielen neuen Mineralarten,die entdeckt werden,gehen oft auf die Aktivitäten von
Microsammlern zurück.Fachmineralogen können das alles gar nicht finden.
Also,immer am Ball bleiben!

Norbert Fuchs

@Norbert