October 29-30 A cool and damp start to the show.  It has been cold and wet since arriving which is a vast contrast to what I left in Trinity County California - 80 degrees and cloudless skies.  My darn tomato plants just won't shut down in weather like that and I just can't leave them out there to rot... Colleen has a bit more maturity around things like that as she ripped the plants out of the ground the day before I left and fed them to the deer.  Sorry for the digression. I almost did not come to the show this year and wouldn't have if not for the improving fortunes of the US $ vs the euro.  When I got here is was $1.25 to 1 euro and, well, nothing lasts forever. It is $1.31 to 1 euro this morning - a feisty move in just 36 hours and then back to $1.28 12 hours later. Buckle up. The past two days were all about setting up and running around to see what was/is new in the mineral world. There are a few new things to report on with the early showings and the hope is for more as the show progresses. A small view of the set up in Hall A5.  On the far left are seen Nevada dealer Scott Werschky and Illinois dealer Mike Bergman. A view in Hall A5 next to the International Pavillion.   The set up is under way in Hall A4. As is customary with every Munich Show I have ever been to Spanish dealer Jordi Fabre was the first one set up.  He is handling the Silvane collection - a collector from Barcelona.  All sorts of interesting items in this collection. Jordi also has some outstanding examples of the hematite pseudomorphs after magnetite from Argentina.  Forever these have been reported as coming from Patagonia, Argentina.  Patagonia is a pretty big place.  The new accurate locality (Jordi is meticulous on getting localities correct) is Payun Matru Volcano, Malargue, Mendoza, Argentina.  Jordi provided some detail on the geologic origin of these unique specimens.  They are found in tuffaceous rock.  Tuff is a form of volcanic ash.  Some of the specimens Jordi has have secondary hematite crystals on the surface of the pseudomorphs providing specimens with exceptional luster.  Jordi's prices were also quite reasonable.  Hence, I obtained a few for the Munich Show update.          Here's a large cabinet specimen over 20 cm across on the left and Silvane Collection piece - a 1.5 cm tabular spinel law twin of fluorite from Kazakhstan on the right.   A view of the tireless Jordi Fabre setting up the new pseudomorphs. Peruvian dealer Teodocio Ramos Cabrera  was set up with a new find of blocky siderite crystals on chalcopyrite.  These come from the Paloma mine in Huancavelica, Peru.  The blocky rhombic crystals are a uniform brownish green in color. A 5.5 cm specimen of the siderite on chalcopyrite with iridescent luster on the left and a 7 cm specimen of siderite on chalcopyrite on the right. Several of the siderite specimens are set on chalcopyrite with gorgeous iridescent luster. The Gobin's as usual have some very interesting specimens from a new find.  This time it is a slew of specimens from Iran.  This is a place that is essentially impossible for American dealers to get into and now that Christophe and Brice have moved permanently to Dubai they are centrally located to get specimens from the middle east region. What they have a numerous specimens of wulfenite and cerussite along with a few other species from Iran.  Back in 2000 there were a large group of Iranian specimens made available by Mikon minerals at the Munich show from the Nakhlak mine but there hasn't been anything of note until this hoard brought out by the Gobins.  Interestingly the wulfenite specimens -all from the Ahmad Abad mine in Yadz - is found with several habits including: thin wafer intergrown crystals, blocky crystals and serrated edge crystals.    The linarite/brachantite material they had came from the Galeh Zaki mine in Khoran.  Below are several examples of the wulfenite that were available. A 5 cm specimen with blocky orange crystals and powdery calcite. A 9 cm specimen with stacked serrated edge crystals.   A 105 cm specimen with blocky orange crystals on massive calcite or aragonite.   A 20 cm specimen with wafer like crystals frosted with calcite. Additionally there were numerous specimens of cerrusite, several hemimorphite and something I had never seen - linarite with brochantite.  I picked up all the linarite specimens they had and will have them posted when I get back home to Weaverville around the 13th. French dealer and good friend Laurent Thomas of Polychrome had some stunning specimens of loose brookite crystals available from Fitampito, Ikalamarony, Fianarantsoa, Madagascar.  These are different from the Pakistan specimens in that they are blockier and several even have small euhedral anatase crystal(s) set on them.  How in the world do you get two minerals with the exact same chemical formula to form together??? A 2 cm crystal of brookite with a 4 mm crystal of anatase and a 2 cm translucent brookite crystal. Laurent also had the finest display of liddicoatite slices anyone has seen in a very longtime at the Munich Show.  These are next to impossible to legally export out of Madagascar in commercial quantities so when he unveiled them there was a bit of a rush with many people lining up to secure pieces.  I don't usually go for things like this but these are absolutely stunning to look at and no two are ever the same.  Laurent deomnstrated that by showing me several slices from the same crystal that looked like apples and oranges.  He also explained that creating slices is a work of art. The color zones in these crystals can be very dark or very light.  Cut them too thin and the colors are blanched out.  Cut them too thick and you have a slab of what looks like schorl.  Another reason so many fine slices were available was due to the large number of stream rolled (cobbles) specimens of liddicoatite found in a new rice field.  While clearing the field the farmers quickly realized that a lot of the bothersome rocks were actually liddicoatite crystals that had eroded out eons ago and then transported and tumbled by moving water to the flat lying areas where the fields were being put in. Laurent was made aware of this and arranged to get as many as he could to slice up. Hence, most of the slices he had were from the Rice Field locality.  I made a selection of 21 specimens of natures stained glass windows for this update. Two large slices of liddicoatite.   Two more slices of liddicoatite. More to come over the next few days from Munich! 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 Subscribe | Unsubscribe All text, specimen images, graphics & site desgin copyright 1998-2014 - John Veevaert  - trinityminerals.com