Mineral Shows - Trinity Mineral Co

Show Report 1 Show Report 2 Show Report 3

This last installment for the 2008 Denver Show will focus on the displays and a few final thoughts on the show. The displays were very good this year with the theme being "Minerals of Colorado". There were also quite a few displays of outstanding quality with no particular theme other than just great minerals.

Keith Proctor usually has a superb display of minerals on hand for people to view. This year was no exception.

Keith's exceptional Scorodite from the El Cobre Mine, Zacatecas, Mexico.
Try gemmy crystals to 1.5 cm across. Stunning.

Keith's two benitoite specimens. Totally gooey.

A superb mimetite with crystals to 3 cm from Tsumeb.

An exceptional spray of lemon yellow legrandite crystals to 2 cm from Mexico.

Collector's Edge also prepared a case at the show. Unlike Keith they stuck to the show's theme.

A superb specimen of amazonite as a manebach twin.

Another amazonite/smoky combo and a gorgeous fluorite on rhodochrosite.

15 cm leaf of crystalline gold... gulp...

Check out this multi generation quartz specimen!!!
Show me another - if you can...

It would not be a Collector's Edge case without a crazy good rhodochrosite from the Sweet Home Mine.
This beast is a group of two 15 cm crystals of pure red. Mercy!

Several museum professionals provided a case of interesting Colorado minerals. One from the LA County museum was particularly interesting seen below.

A 15 cm baveno twin of microcline var. Amazonite.

Irv Brown had his usual incredible stuff on display. His case had 15 or so specimens including some rough and cut pieces.

An 8 cm mass of crystalline gold on quartz from California.

A 2.5 cm crystal of red beryl and a faceted stone from Utah.

A 1.5 cm crystal of gem quality benitoite and a faceted benitoite

The Denver Museum also had a case of fine specimens sticking to the show theme.

Look at this collection of chunks of Colorado!

A 10 cm specimen of amazonite with preferential face coloring.

A 4 cm gold wire

A 3.5 cm specimen with two gold antennae.
" My favorite Martian ?"

Bob and Carol Smith had a fine case of minerals from Afghanistan and Pakistan - mostly obtained from Dudley Blauwet. Check out the You Tube video I have prepared with Dudley mentioning his big sale that he will have at Tucson next year. There was a mild level of stress in Dudley's voice when he found out I was recording this...

A 25 cm crystal of quartz with that odd habit for apatite identical to that found at the Sapo mine in Brazil.

A spectacular spray of childrenite crystals to 2.5 cm in length.

The Mineral Association of Dallas (MAD) put a case on display that was filled with exceptional specimens.

A 3.5 cm crystal of apatite on matrix from Austria.

A 4 cm specimen with crystals of gem quality emerald.

A 5 cm specimen with crystals of pink fluorite. This rock
was on a Rocks & Minerals cover several years ago.

A 15 cm specimen of eye candy from the Sweet Home mine.

A 20 cm specimen with bright lustrous crystals of green mimetite to 1.5 cm across.

While taking pictures of the MAD case my sixth sense detected "eyes on me".
I wheeled around and saw avid collector Gail Spann and English
dealer Ian Bruce yucking it up. Check out the You Tube video below.

While wandering the last day of the show I visited with Dan & Diana Weinrich again. I wanted to look at couple of specimens I had seen earlier. A stunning veszelyite from Montana and an equally stunning elbaite from the Himalaya mine in California. Before getting out Dan showed me a mind blowing specimen of tanzanite. Hey guys will you adopt me?

Here is Dan's 6 cm specimen of veszelyite - ex Minette Collection specimen.

This is a 20+ cm specimen of elbaite from the Himalaya Mine in San Diego County.

When Dan & Diana showed me this my eyes buldged. An 8 cm cluster of
untreated tanzanite crystals from Tanzania. Whew!

I thought I would save the best for last. Colorado collector Ralph Clark has a sensational thumbnail collection of worldwide specimens. He is a usual exhibitor at this show but this year the specimens were just off the wall incredible.

Here is Ralph's entire case.

A specimen from the famous Gem Pocket at Tsumeb.

This was my favorite specimen seen here at the show. In my opinion this is one of the absolute finest thumbnail
specimens of benitoite in existence. The composition of the piece with the benitoite essentially perched on the
neptunite is a scene out of the Disney movie Fantasia. It is pictured in the 1978 California Issue of the Min. Rec.

Ok this will do it for the 2008 Denver Show. My take on the show is my take and I saw a lot but I did not see everything. The prices were as high as ever for just about everything. Depsite it there were still good bargains to be found if you put the time in. There was precious little in the way of new finds to report on. The new find of fluorite from New Mexico and the nifontonite also from Mexico were probably the most important new things here at Denver. Even so the number of fine specimens was a high as ever here in Denver. The only problem is the pricing. I overheard numerous random conversations with the same theme: "I am not a doctor, I am not a lawyer, I am not a CEO, and I am not a bank robber - so I must not be a mineral collector." I even heard Dave Wilber say that the reason he is collecting radioactive minerals is because everything else is too pricey and he is none of the above. A lot of dealers are still offering very fine minerals at prices that will not affect the kid's college fund. You simply have to hunt them down and not equate inferior quality with a low price.

My next show will be in Munich in about 6 weeks. We'll see then if anything new has turned up.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list for Mineral Shows please enter your email address below. If you were on the Virtual Show mailing list you may already be on the list.

Past Shows & Reports
PLEASE NOTE: The minerals that were offered on these pages are all sold

1999 Munich Show	2000 Sainte Marie Show Munich Show	2001 Sainte Marie Show Munich Show	2002 Tucson Show Sainte Marie Show Denver Show Munich Show
2003 Tucson Show Sainte Marie Show East Coast Show Denver Show Munich Show	2004 Tucson Show West Coast Show East Coast Show Denver Show Munich Show	2005 Tucson Show West Coast Show East Coast Show Denver Show Munich Show	2006 Tucson Show Bologna Show Sainte Marie Show East Coast Show Munich Show
2007 Tucson Show Dallas Show East Coast Show Denver Show Munich Show	2008 Tucson Show West Coast Show East Coast Show Denver Show Munich Show	2009 Tucson Show West Coast Show East Coast Show Denver Show Munich Show	2010 Tucson Show San Francisco Show East Coast Show Denver Show Munich Show
2011 Tucson Show San Francisco Show East Coast Show Denver Show Munich Show	2012 Tucson Show West Coast Show East Coast Show Denver Show Munich Show	2013 Tucson Show Sainte Marie Show Crystal Days (Poland) Munich Show

Join the mailing list for Trinity Mineral Co. and MineralShows .Com