Most of you will never see even one of these mineral specimens in person, so when I was invited to see this case, I asked if I could snap a picture. So, my #mastodon friends, here are some of San Diego’s finest produced #gems in the rough. #tourmaline#morganite#kunzite.
@vickyveritas Wish it were mine. There's a couple of "important" pieces in this relatively small display case. The centerpiece is that tall Kunzite blade, called "The Big Kahuna" taken out of the Oceanview mine. A lot of interesting material came from that pocket, including the lepidolite/tourmaline matrix piece directly over the big guy on the top shelf. That's more like what MY collection looks like! haha.
@vickyveritas I've made a couple of purchases this week for new material coming from the Tourmaline King mine. They're being cleaned but I'll have them to display in a month or so. Once that happens I'll post a few pictures of my display cases.
My collection is essentially "California" which includes Baja. But the bulk of the minerals are from San Diego Co., which is both where the action really is and where most of the best specimens come from. I'll be adding better Benitoite and Motherlode Gold as funds permit. Even so, it's a pretty good collection for someone with limited resources.
@vickyveritas I took home this larger piece to play around with while we wait for the cleaner’s schedule to clear. It’s over 500 gms but not much more. I can’t tell exactly. This shot gives a fair look at the various colors. #minerals The smaller one is fragile so I left it for now.
@vickyveritas Here’s the largest piece I’ve seen from that pocket that probably won’t be cut. It’s likely 2 kgs easy, and will cost some collector dearly. I’m guessing $30-60k.
@vickyveritas@CWilbur At one time I had this piece in my collection, but I ended up selling it to a private museum. It’s a Tourmaline Queen Mine piece that stood over ten inches tall. (It made me nervous to have it in the house.)
@vickyveritas@CWilbur These are my current holdings from that Oceanview Mine pocket where the big Kunzite came from. The Smoky on the left is a flawless floater with a nest of ruby-red tourmaline in very purple Lepidolite. The Lepidolite in all three is insane. The two in front have repairs in the Tourmaline.
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