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Return to the 2014 Denver Show report




 
 


I had a brief trip out to Denver this year. I arrived Tuesday September 9 and was homeward bound the following Saturday.  I missed the new Fine Mineral Show presented by Dave Wasiman that was held at the Marriot in Golden, Colorado unfortunately.  Everyone I talked with said it was a great first show so I will put this on my Denver map for next year.  Here are a couple of scenes along the way.


King Mountain about 45 miles east of the Nevada/Utah state line on Hwy 50.   

 


A view of sandstone formations along I-70 west of Green River, Utah.     

 

My first day of snooping around was September 10th and immediately I went to Marty Zinn's show at the Ramada Inn.  I spoke with a lot of people and found out that there is little in the way of new things - unless you look for them.  The biggest news was the inky blue fluorite specimens from the Huanggang mine in Inner Mongolia, China.  These were first seen at the 2014 Sainte Marie show this past June.  Jinan Chinese Mineral Trading Company was the source for most of these seen around Denver.  I picked up several from them and a few from Isaias Casanova and Geoff Krasnov who got to him before I did.  The fluorite is set on ivory white quartz that appears to have been moderately altered by a subsequent phase of quartz mineralization or perhaps during the fluorite phase. The fluorite crystals are rounded in appearance due to modifications of the cubic form by numerous other crystal faces.   Anyway, they are quite attractive.

 


Typical specimen of the new fluorite from China.   

 

I had good luck at the Main Show at the Merchandise Mart.  Jack Crowley, of Reno, Nevada, had a group of specimens of white scheelite crystals on garnet matrix from the Merril Prospect, Coyote Ridge, Inyo County, California.  The crystal form is somehwat rounded but distinct.  They are brightly fluorescent under SW UV light. Jack made me an offer so I purchased the entire lot.  

 


Typical specimen of the new scheellites from California.

 

Prior to the show I made a trip out to North Carolina to viist with Dr. Mark Feinglos.  Mark put together a large suite of azurite specimens from literally hundreds of localities around the world.  I purchased that lot and will have it available at the Tucson Show in 2015.  He also offered up a specimen of the insanely rare new mineral yeomanite.  These are found at the Merehead Quarry near Somerset, England.  I spoke briefly with Ian Bruce, the source of these, at the Denver show and he said there were no more than a dozen of these found.  Yeomanite is an oxychloride of lead and occurs as silky acicular crystals.

 


Two images of the same specimen of yeomanite from Merehead Quarry.

 

Ian also had specimens available from Iran of firey orange mimetite from the Anarak district in Esfahan Province, Iran and specimens of colorful fluorite from the Komshejeh Mine also from Esfahan Province in Iran.  He also had recently recovered specimens of botallackite from the Cligga Head in Cornwall.  I picked up a selection of all. Several of the mimetite specimens are associated with wulfenite and are reminiscent of material found at the Rowley Mine.  

 


Specimen of the new mimetite from Iran.

 


Wulfenite with mimetite from Iran .

 


Two specimens of the new fluorite from Iran.

 


Specimen of botallackite from the Levant mine in Cornwall, England.

Kristalle was selling the gold collection of Dick Hauck.  I found several very interesting specimens including this very fine specimen of nagyagite from Romania and several gold specimens from Montana, California and even Golden, Colorado.


Gold wires with chrysocola from the Whitlach Mine, Helena, Montana.

 


Exceptional specimen of nagyagite from Romania!

 


A 2.5 cm specimen of epidote with crystals of gold, molybdenite and sphalerite from Butte, Montana. 

Speaking of gold check out these fairly new specimens from the Olinghouse mine in Washos County, Nevada.  The gold is the same as that typically seen from there but these pieces, from Alan Day, are associated with green malachite and bluish colored chrysocolaa.  Alan, who is working the mine has never encountered these before.

 


Gold with copper oxides from the Olinghouse mine in Nevada.

Alan also holds the claim for the famous varscite nodules found in Clay Canyon, Fairfield, Utah.  He said he hopes to be working the claim again this coming fall for new specimens.

 


A classic from Utah - variscite slab with crandallite. 

 

I found a lot of other interesting specimens to post that are recycled from older collections.  Here's a quick sampling of a few that will be posted to the website in the next week.

Two images of a leadhillite and lanarkite specimen with cerussite and pyromorphite from the Leadhills of Scotland. 

 

Two rhodochrosites from the Kalahari Manganese Field. 

 

The theme this year at the show was agates.  I am not much of a fan of quartz but there were quite a few interesting specimens with attractive patterns.


Even I have to admit that this is a pretty cool thing from the Harvard Museum. 

  


Not exactly agates these slabs most likely from Morenci are quite appealing.

 


The stopper at the entrance - a huge plate of amazonite with smoky quartz presented by the Dorris family.

 


.

 


An interesting approach to presenting an agate with a rounded cut. 

 


Some unusual Uruguayan amethyst agates from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

 


Agates from Morocco.

 


A prized Laguna Agate.

 


The Lizzadro Museum presented some carved agates. Each is carved from a single agate.

 


 


 

 


The Spanns had a case that more or less convinced me that quartz is a collectable mineral.

 


A ring of crystallized rose quartz on a pale smoky quartz from Brazil. 

 


Four specimens of quartz that are totally different from each other.  

 


This one really caught my eye though!  A water clear quartz on muscovite with scheelite from China. Damn!

 


The MAD association always puts a spell binding case on display. 

 

Here are a few specimens I found while wandering around the main show that I thought were exceptional, though out of my reach... dang it...



One of the best pyrargyrites I have ever seen with Dave Bunk.

 

 


An unbelievable hessite!  Also from Dave Bunk.


An exceptional chalcocite from the classic east coast locality with Dave Bunk.

 


Cal Graeber had this incredible cerussite and anglesite from Morocco.

 

Ok, that will wrap it up for this year's Denver Show.   The Chinese flourites were the big buzz here but there were lots of other specimens worth noting and gettings.  I will certainly be at the Fine Mineral Show next year at the Marriot in Golden and also the other two venues - Ramada Inn and Merchandise Mart. 

One item to mention though is that the Fine Mineral Show's timing is placing a lot of collectors in a dilemna.   There is a fair amount of time they would have to spend in Denver or come out twice from around the country to see what is being offered.  It is also placing a lot of stress on some dealers who are showing at all three venues.  The attendance seemed down at the main show this year and a lot of dealers were having an "off" show.  Not all of the dealers were griping but a lot were. 

Anyway, that is my take on the 2014 Denver Show.  I will be back again to see what the world of minerals has to offer in September 2015.

Cheers,  John 

 


 
 

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

  2014
Tucson Show
Denver Show 

 



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