West Coast Mineral Show
May 2010, Pomona
page 3 of 3

A pair of classics: Ojuela Mine Mimetite and Sweetwater Mine Galena from Evan Jones Minerals (evanabbottjones@gmail.com).

Marc Miterman (uniqueminerals@comcast.net), sharing space with Evan Jones, had a many-flavored Afghani Tourmaline...

... and an Opal "pineapple" from Australia, which unfortunately was out-of-focus.


Andy Seibel (http://andyseibel.com/) had a Clinozoisite from Pakistan that looked like a Brookite on steroids...

... also an Amethyst on Amethyst (?) from Ahmadnagar that caught my eye.

Dmitriy Belakovskiy (dmzvr@aol.com, a curator at the Fersman Museum in Moscow) can always come up with a new rarity for your collection, or how about one of these awesome Seraphinite nodules (green, left) or a Villiaumite (red, right) to enhance your collection ...

... or a breathtakingly beautiful Russian sulphur geode?

Steve Hardinger of Dragon Minerals (http://www.dragon-minerals.com, the guy who created The Vug) had an impressive Pentagonite matrix specimen for less than $100. What I don't understand is why none of the Indian mineral dealers had comparable minerals for sale.

Steve Hardinger of Dragon Minerals also had bizarre, large, flat Aquamarines from China.

These odd Pyrite stalactites from New Mexico were offered by Miao Yang of Crystal Monster (crystalmonster@gmail.com).

Vasconcelos (vasconpedras@uol.com.br) of Brazil had this perfect Quartz Scepter for sale, as well as many other Quartz specimens and Tourmalines.

Gemas, N. O. (henrygemasno@gmail.com) from Columbia had amazing Emeralds.  Can you see them glow?  They were visible from across the hall.

Here are a few of them.  Don't try to pretend your collection wouldn't be energized with the addition of a fine Columbian Emerald.  I'm a rare mineral collector and I would jump at the chance to get one of these beauties!

And have you heard of trapiche Emeralds?  If not, shame on you - go read your Sinkankas.

Tim Sherburn, working in Don Olson's booth (donaldkolson@netscape.net), shows off a huge Moat Mt (NH) Smoky Quartz collected by Ernie Schlichter.

For many people, this is the holy grail - Smoky Quartz with Amazonite from the Smoky Hawk Claim, dug by Joe Dorris of Pinnacle 5 Minerals (http://pinnacle5minerals.com).  Some even have balls of Clevelandite.

And more Colorado goodies - Sylvanite under $100 - from Joe Dorris of Pinnacle 5 Minerals.

Joe Dorris with a copy of his book - it's GOOD, I read it all night cuz I couldn't put it down!

John Garsow (http://www.johngarsow.com) had four matrix Corundums from Riverside, CA dug by the Gochenours.  These are a mineral classic - especially for Southern California collectors! - that I wish I had in my collection.

Now I'm going to get on my soapbox - we had dealers drive from CONNECTICUT to set up and display their wares, like JBF Minerals (http://mineralmovies.com, above & below), people flew in from Brazil and India, and yet, only 839 people showed up to see the display on Friday??  Only 1262 people showed up on Saturday??

Here is a Stibiotantalite on Elbaite - I DARE you to find one in a mineral museum!  

There were fascinating mineral lectures and awesome collections on display and great bargains to be had AND YOU WERE NOT THERE?  WHY NOT?!  As dealers, we can not continue to do shows at a loss.  If you are content to order from the internet, fine.  But if you enjoy meeting fellow collectors, seeing awesome pieces that you will never find in a museum, viewing private collections that you would otherwise never see, listening to lectures by people who you will not hear elsewhere, then you MUST SUPPORT mineral shows.

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