Post your fossils, minerals and crystals

[airhead1983]

Before I decided to focus on ancient coins, I dabbled in a bit of fossil collecting.  Here is my very small collection, along with a piece of a meteorite.

The Spinosaurus tooth is my favourite.

Erin

[robinjojo]

3 hours ago, expat said:

Agate is something that fits well on this site. Ornamentally, it was used for the seal stones of Ancient Greek warriors and is part of Minoan history. Before that, to the 3rd Millennium BCE, polished agate was used  as jewellery in the Indus Valley Civilisation.

 

 

3 hours ago, Oldhoopster said:

Other stuff

Nice agates!

Here's one more that I've owned since 1968, from South Dakota

 

 

 

[expat]

13 minutes ago, robinjojo said:

 

Nice agates!

Here's one more that I've owned since 1968, from South Dakota

 

 

 

A real beauty. Agate is just great to look at

[expat]

The spear shaped "guard" of the Belemnite a squidlike creature. They became extinct during Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, 66 million years ago.

Belemnitella was declared the State fossil of Delaware on 2nd July 1996.

I have 1 au natural and 2 still encased in rock.

 

 

[Paddy54]

Our mantel is home to many animals carved from all sorts of materials. Many from our travels .

I love the Angel fish anyd barnacles. 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Paddy54

[expat]

2 minutes ago, Paddy54 said:

Our mantel is home to many animals carved from all sorts of materials.

I love the Angel fish and barnacles. 

They are great Paddy. We have about 200 animal figures carved from Jade, Turquoise, Soapstone and other minerals on display in our shop.

[Paddy54]

[robinjojo]

Yes, quartz family gemstones (opal, agate, jasper, chert, rock crystal, amethyst, citrine, Prasiolite or green quartz) have been used by humans going back millennia in the form of amulets, rings, Intaglios, seals and other objects for decorative and everyday use.  There's also flint, not a gemstone, but an important mineral in the evolution of early human history.  With a hardness of seven, on the Mohs scale of one to ten (one being talc and ten diamond) it is easy why this material was a favorite of the ancients.

Here's my yellowish green Babylonian frog weight, called "Euphrates", created during the first half of the second millennium BC.  She is comprised of a type of agate known as dentritic agate.  The dark inclusions are manganese crystal growths that formed between the cryptocrystalline quartz crystals, extremely small, and fibrous in nature.  The inclusions have a fan or branch like shapes.

I think this weight was made from a river stone, whose outer skin was bleached white.  As the stone was ground and sanded, an arduous task I image back then, give the absence of really hard grits (probably limited, I think to garnet), the inner colors revealed themselves.  The remaining patches of white are remnants of the stone's skin.

This is a wonderful object, with a wonderful minimalist style, that crosses between being an antiquity and an object of mineralogical and lapidary interest.

I acquired this object from Harlan Berk, back in 2017.  It came out of a private American collection, where it was acquired in 1981.

7.3 cm x 4 cm.

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by robinjojo

[expat]

4 hours ago, robinjojo said:

Yes, quartz family gemstones (opal, agate, jasper, chert, rock crystal, amethyst, citrine, Prasiolite or green quartz) have been used by humans going back millennia in the form of amulets, rings, Intaglios, seals and other objects for decorative and everyday use.  There's also flint, not a gemstone, but an important mineral in the evolution of early human history.  With a hardness of seven, on the Mohs scale of one to ten (one being talc and ten diamond) it is easy why this material was a favorite of the ancients.

Here's my yellowish green Babylonian frog weight, called "Euphrates", created during the first half of the second millennium BC.  She is comprised of a type of agate known as dentritic agate.  The dark inclusions are manganese crystal growths that formed between the cryptocrystalline quartz crystals, extremely small, and fibrous in nature.  The inclusions have a fan or branch like shapes.

This is a wonderful object that crosses between being an antiquity and an object of mineralogical and lapidary interest.

I acquired this object from Harlan Berk, back in 2017.  It came out of a private American collection, where it was acquired in 1981.

7.3 cm x 4 cm.

 

Lovely frog. We have some carved tortoises very similar. I cant find them so assume they are at our mountain home. Going there next week so will have a look.

[expat]

8 hours ago, Paddy54 said:

Paddy, that is a great Nautilus. Generally unchanged for about 500 million years. The word nautilus is derived from the Greek word ναυτίλος nautílos "sailor", it originally referred to a type of octopus of the genus Argonauta  also known as 'paper nautilus', which were thought to use two of their arms as sails

[expat]

Seeing the Nautilus above, this takes pride of place in our shell collection. It was found and we were granted permission for it to be retained by us. I have placed a silver dollar against it so you can judge its size.

 

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by expat

[Heliodromus]

I don't collect shells, as such, but I like them and do look for them on the beach.

I found this on the NJ shore after a winter storm. Not sure what is is. Some kind of Whelk, perhaps? It's about 7" from tip to tip (Quarter for scale).

[Spaniard]

Lovely pieces have been shown in this thread.....🥰

Here's some sort of water snail I assume, Roman Denarius for scale..

[expat]

The two above look like water snails. Nice finds. We live 100 yards from the beach and walk it every day. We really look forward to the morning after a combination of high tide and a storm. We have found many great pieces that way. Here are two entire specimens, a sea urchin and a seahorse.

 

[Paddy54]

I have a gold  seahorse pin that was cast from a real seahorse . I had it on one of my hats it sits on a sprig of black coral.

[robinjojo]

Here, we are entering the world of phosphate minerals.  Phosphate minerals include a very well known one, one whose role played an important one in human civilizations throughout the globe: turquoise.  

What we have here is not turquoise. This is a half nodule of the phosphate cousin of turquoise, variscite.  While turquoise is a phosphate of copper and aluminum, variscite is a phosphate of aluminum.  The nodule contains a complex of phosphates: variscite (blue green areas), crandallite (yellow banded areas), and wardite (the dark gray banded areas and eyes). The nodules occurred in a contact zone where the variscite became altered into these other phosphate minerals, meaning that they were formed at the expense of the variscite.  

The result is that nodules were mined in the 1930s and 1940s at a location known as the Little Green Monster Mine, in Utah.  The nodules varied greatly, with some having large areas of almost emerald green variscite mixed with other phosphates, while others were almost entirely crandallite, or were hollow.  The size of the nodules varied from a couple of centimeters to large nodules of fifteen centimeters or more.  The Little Green Monster Mine has long been closed, but occasional specimens are  found on the mine dumps, although the quality of these finds don't match the beauty of the original mined nodules.  Slabs of complete nodules do come to the market from time to time, but finding a complete, unbroken half nodule is a difficult task to complete.

These nodules are uniquely American.  

Variscite, AlPO4•2H2O

Little Green Monster Mine, Clay Canyon, Fairfield, Utah Co., Utah, United States

Half nodule, 11.5cm x 8.2cm x 4cm,  516.4 grams

From the Charles M Noll Collection

 

Edited June 13, 2022 by robinjojo

[expat]

42 minutes ago, robinjojo said:

Here, we are entering the world of phosphate minerals.  Phosphate minerals include a very well known one, one whose role played an important one in human civilizations throughout the globe: turquoise.  

We have have here is not turquoise. This is a half nodule of the phosphate cousin of turquoise, variscite.  While turquoise is a phosphate of copper and aluminum, variscite is a phosphate of aluminum.  The nodule contains a complex of phosphates: variscite (blue green areas), crandallite (yellow banded areas), and wardite (the dark gray banded areas and eyes). The nodules occurred in a contact zone where the variscite became altered into these other phosphate minerals, meaning that they were formed at the expense of the variscite.  

The result is that nodules were mined in the 1930s and 1940s at a location known as the Little Green Monster Mine, in Utah.  The nodules varied greatly, with some having large areas of almost emerald green variscite mixed with other phosphates, while others were almost entirely crandallite, or were hollow.  The size of the nodules varied from a couple of centimeters to large nodules of fifteen centimeters or more.  The Little Green Monster Mine has long been closed, but occasional specimens are  found on the mine dumps, although the quality of these finds don't match the beauty of the original mined nodules.  Slabs of complete nodules do come to the market from time to time, but finding a complete, unbroken half nodule is a difficult task to complete.

These nodules are uniquely American.  

Variscite, AlPO4•2H2O

Little Green Monster Mine, Clay Canyon, Fairfield, Utah Co., Utah, United States

Half nodule, 11.5cm x 8.2cm x 4cm,  516.4 grams

From the Charles M Noll Collection

 

Fantastic. First time I have seen one, thanks for sharing

[expat]

I dug this up from the garden in our mountain home. If someone could narrow down its type I would be grateful. It is 13 in wide,  6 in high and 7 in deep. It weighs just under 10 pounds

 

[robinjojo]

That a mass of quartz crystals. 

Some of the crystals appear to have light pinkish cast, probably due to traces of iron oxide.

[Paddy54]

A unfinished butterfly a sail boat cut from black tiger eye. Tague nut carvings from central America a pair of bone bears...

[Alegandron]

Mammoth Tusk Carvings

I had bought these in China, carved, from Mammoth tusk imported through the land port Manchulia, China, from Siberia, Russia. Since then, I understand now it is illegal to import Mammoth Tusk, similar to the Elephant Ivory laws. At the time I purchased them and brought them home, Mammoth was not an endangered species (being extinct), therefore there were no problems. Now, it looks like Custom Laws have changed. Like Ivory, existing pieces are grandfathered (as I understand the changes.)


Mammoth Tusk - Russia find China carved Chinese Zodiac BOAR and RABBIT


I am the Boar, my wife's Zodiak is the Rabbit.

[expat]

@Paddy54nice objets d'art my friend.

[expat]

25 minutes ago, Alegandron said:

Mammoth Tusk Carvings

I had bought these in China, carved, from Mammoth tusk imported through the land port Manchulia, China, from Siberia, Russia. Since then, I understand now it is illegal to import Mammoth Tusk, similar to the Elephant Ivory laws. At the time I purchased them and brought them home, Mammoth was not an endangered species (being extinct), therefore there were no problems. Now, it looks like Custom Laws have changed. Like Ivory, existing pieces are grandfathered (as I understand the changes.)


Mammoth Tusk - Russia find China carved Chinese Zodiac BOAR and RABBIT


I am the Boar, my wife's Zodiak is the Rabbit.

Those are lovely and I think you are correct in that already being in possession from before the laws were changed is OK. Just can't sell them on.

[robinjojo]

9 minutes ago, Alegandron said:

Mammoth Tusk Carvings

I had bought these in China, carved, from Mammoth tusk imported through the land port Manchulia, China, from Siberia, Russia. Since then, I understand now it is illegal to import Mammoth Tusk, similar to the Elephant Ivory laws. At the time I purchased them and brought them home, Mammoth was not an endangered species (being extinct), therefore there were no problems. Now, it looks like Custom Laws have changed. Like Ivory, existing pieces are grandfathered (as I understand the changes.)


Mammoth Tusk - Russia find China carved Chinese Zodiac BOAR and RABBIT


I am the Boar, my wife's Zodiak is the Rabbit.

You have two netsuke carvings.  Netsuke is a traditional Japanese carved object, out of ivory, wood and now resin, which is supposed to resemble ivory.  The two holes at the bottom are to secure a cord, since traditional Japanese clothing did not include belts.  The cords were attached to a purse or pouch, for holding various items.  Traditional Japanese kimonos did not have pockets.

Here's one from my collection, and the nicest one, made of fossil ivory, from the first to second decade of the 20th century, by my estimate.  Note the two holes in the back.

 

[expat]

In the mountains at the weekend and stopped at a village to stretch the legs and partake of a beverage. We came across someone who was selling stuff that he had created. We often come across weavers who use local reeds to make baskets and hats etc. This guy was carving rocks that he finds in the river valley. We left him a business card with the offer to display and sell his stuff in our shop which sells only artesania from many countries. We took with us 4 turtles of different color rock for our personal collection of figures. They are about 3in long, 2in wide and 2in high. The first image looks more like a fat seal as the head broke apparently and had to be redone, shortening it in the process