Today, February 12, was the opening day of the 61st
Tucson Gem & Mineral Show---the “main show”---held at the Tucson Convention
Center. The show theme for 2015, Minerals of Western Europe, brought a
number of exhibitions featuring fine minerals from a variety of localities, as
well as European dealers and their wares.
The following photos represent only a small portion of the many minerals
in display exhibitions and dealer cases.
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| A Native American "Spirit Doll" with gemstone adornments. |
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| Bowl: Brazilian agate, ca. 1970, Idar-Oberstein, Germany. |
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| A great pyromorphite from the Las Ferges Mine, France. |
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| A variety of specimens from localities in western Europe. |
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| Great Norwegian silver from the famous Kongsburg District. |
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| More silver from Kongsburg. |
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| Mimetite from the Cumbria District, England. |
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| Sulfur crystal from Sicily. |
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| The star of the Show: topaz collected by Rich Fretterd (as seen on The Prospectors TV show) from pegmatites around Pike Peak. The stone on the left is a piece of 1345.25 ct. billed as the largest faceted topaz from the USA. |
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| More topaz from the Pikes Peak pegmatites. For a great story, and many photos, of the topaz see www.spiriferminerals.com. |
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| There is always gold at the Tucson Show. This is the eight pound Thunderbolt collected from western Australia. |
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| Beautiful rhodochrosite and fluorite from China. |
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| Come to Arizona and see Bisbee azurite! |
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| Brazilian amethyst and calcite in above three photos. Spectacular. |
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| The geode crackers are always popular. |
I spent most of Thursday at the show and was simply
overwhelmed, as usual, with the many cases and specimens.
