A sliced nodule of agate, with agate bands selectively replaced with native copper (the sliced face is polished). From the Pete Richards collection, he acquired the piece from Tom Rosemeyer on June 2, 2014. So intricate – a beautiful specimen! About Pete Richards (click here)  

A very sharp, lustrous vesuvianite crystal in quartz from the Goodall Quarry, Sanford, Maine – a very fine crystal for the locality.  In very good condition, one small nick – the crystal has a notch at the top right that is bounded by faces, and there is a chip in the surface facing to the […]

This is a great specimen of iridescent hematite/goethite – under magnification, one can see that it has a stalagmitic-type habit. The iridescence is caused by thin layers of hematite, acting as a diffraction film, and has wonderful colour. This material is sometimes known by an old name, “turgite”, which was originally thought a separate mineral, […]

A beautiful tabular quartz crystal with a glossy high lustre from Mt. Mica, one of Maine’s most iconic localities. This quartz exhibits attractive mosaic development and is translucent to transparent. It is sharp! From the Pete Richards collection, he personally collected it in August, 2007. About Pete Richards (click here)

This galena from the Picher Field (Baxter Springs) exhibits the classic overgrowth of cuboctahedral crystals over a partial cube. The crystals are sharp and the overall pattern is great. In excellent condition. The underlying cube is only part of a crystal, and the incomplete boundaries are clean cleavage faces. This is a beauty.  From the […]

This is a large wulfenite! It is a beautiful orange, with parallel growth faces, sharp and with good lustre. From the Pete Richards collection, this piece was collected by Gene Schlepp in 1969 and acquired by Pete in June, 1984. These finds are described in the book Collecting Arizona. This specimen is repaired – the […]

This is a wavellite with a lot more than meets the eye at a glance. The crystal-lined vug contains balls of radiating wavellite crystals – so far, no surprise. However, a closer look reveals that these wavellite balls are comprised of discrete crystals easily visible with the magnification of a loupe. The wavellite crystals are […]

A plate hosting pretty green balls of radiating wavellite crystals. The balls are coarsely crystallized – with only minor magnification, one sees multitude of terminations. There are smaller crystal balls on the piece of a lighter hue – it’s hard to say with certainty, but they look to me as though they are a later […]

Andalusite is a relatively common mineral found in metamorphic environments, but well-defined terminated crystals are not so common. This is a terminated andalusite crystal with a parallel-growth “side-car” crystal from Virginia. In excellent condition, no damage. From the Pete Richards collection, he acquired it on May 13, 1989. About Pete Richards (click here)

Andalusite is a relatively common mineral found in metamorphic environments, but well-defined terminated crystals are not so common. This is a nice little cluster of terminated andalusite crystals from Virginia – nice definition for andalusite. In excellent condition, no damage. From the Pete Richards collection, he acquired it on May 13, 1989. About Pete Richards […]

From the world’s preeminent rutile locality, a large blocky deep red rutile crystal with minor pyrophyllite. This crystal is not fully developed, such that it is about half a crystal (the back being incomplete) – it appears that its development was partly interrupted by the pyrophyllite and by adjoining rutile (evidenced by contacts). However, it […]