Hi all, I’m Marco Barsanti a free-lance geologist and an amateur mineralogist and collector from Tuscany, Italy. I collect minerals since I was 6 years old and I still keep on collecting after much more than 44 years. Many of the specimens of my collection (more than 40%) have been self collected, while the other stuff have been acquired with exchanges with other collectors, while relatively few are the specimens which have been bought. As final result of this hobby, actually I have a garage and a home like a mine dump (as my wife uses to say). What it is shown here in my page on Mindat is so only a part of my collection.

I belong to the following associations: Associazione Micro-mineralogica Italiana (A.M.I)., Gruppo Mineralogico e Paleontologico di Fornaci di Barga, Gruppo Mineralogico e Paleontologico Lucchese,. Associazione Mineralogica Apuana (A.M.A).

I am always happy to exchange minerals either at shows either by mail, and it is, for me, the preferred way to encrease my collection. So I prefer a non-commercial approach on exchanges. My specimens in collection cover almost all sizes, but usually I prefer to put in my collection thumbnail - small cabinet or cabinet specimens. I collect micromounts too. I recommend precision on labels and I’d like to find on these papers the most detailed informations possible.

Most of the minerals that I can have and offer in exhanges have been self-collected aronud the areas where i live: that means northern Tuscany, and, more in detail, among Lucca, Massa-Carrara, Alpi Apuane - Appennino Tosco-Emiliano and Liguria areas.

I have also a minor number of swap minerals from Southern Tuscany, Elba Island and also from other Italian regions.