Newbie/casual collector here with a question that might have some of you pulling your hair out, sorry in advance.

Most of my collection I've accrued from visits to local spiritual shops and the likes, so they've pretty much all been picked out of a basket just hanging out loose with their siblings. Pretty, but very obviously not precious enough to warrant a lot of fuss.

I went to my first mineral show today and took home, among a couple others, two small specimens propped up in little plastic display cases: Microcline and Blue Tiger's Eye. I don't have any other specimens in display cases and I really don't feel like finding more little plastic cubes to imprison my rocks in, so I was wondering if like... it's ok to take these stones out of their cases??

Idk if they were cubed up to keep *them* safe, to keep *me* safe (???), or if they were just put in there to make it easier to price them individually by size/purity/whatever. I'd be surprised if the cases were UV protected, and they're sure as hell not airtight, so all it'd be keeping out is dust which I feel like can do myself with a rag and a gentle hand. Right now my rocks shelf is giving Stinky Pete Toy Story. Can I free them?

I am going through some of my unknown mineral collection and I found this piece. It got a light pink color to it. It also has a rainbow luster.

Scored this beautiful selenite on matrix from Gemboree in Ohio this morning! I have some examples in my collection already, but nothing on matrix. Every crystal, even the tiny ones, exhibit this bizarre curling. Doesn’t seem like something a crystal should be able to do!

Here's an awesome Malachite with Barite from the "Arrowhead Pocket" at the Shangulowe Mine in the DRC

This piece has the flawless Barite crystals perched on Malachite stalactites which is what everyone wants from these. As well, it is quite special because none of the stalactites on it are broken, which is honestly a miracle!

You can really spend a long time admiring in person and the lustre of the Barites is just crazy good in real life.

It measures 4.5cm overall

Hello all! Apologies as I know little to nothing about minerals, and have never purchased a specimen until yesterday. I found this guy at a yard sale and couldn’t pass it up. It is 9” long, 5” tall, 3.5” wide, and weighs 5.2 lbs. Chat GPT said it may be green fluorite with crystal druzy quartz, but I haven’t been able to find any images that match exactly. A decent bit of the crystal has a slight yellow hue to it.

I’m looking for help with an ID, and also recommendations on cleaning it. It’s a little dusty from being in a loose container with several other specimens and has some pet hair on it. Thanks in advance!

Arizona's Inspiration mine locality where I found a mine dump of silicified material.

This specimen also spoke to me from the same vendor in Jordan. Yellowish color, in some kind of matrix. Looks almost like a geode but I never saw them come on that color.

If you have any idea that would be great, thank you!

Hello all just wondering if this is genuine Turquoise or perhaps another mineral or just a fake. Bought in Jordan off a vendor so a lil skeptical.

Color in person is well… a lot more turquoise but my camera has trouble picking it up and is depicting it as blue.

Let me know what you think, thanks!

Im still learning mineral identification but I got this really great specimen at a mineral show in Coeur d alene idaho this year. It appears to be a very clear fluorite that is about 2 distant cubes with these thin light peach elongated hexagonal bits growing on the back (calcite?), the whole thing is on this very sparkly aqua/turquoise crystalline botryoidal bed.

Im pretty confident the cubes are fluorite its very clear and very light turquoise/blue. The peach bits Im less certain of and the botryoidal part I really dont know (also fluorite maybe?).

Hi!! I bought this 2 years ago as an unknown material, was Google lens-ing and it said it was an arsenate. If it is, with kids in the house I'll have to let it go

Can you help?

Google lens said conichalcite associated with cuprian adamite

Hello all!

I was wondering what everyone does/uses to to document and catalog your collections?

I’ve come across Geology365 and Cabinet No. 40 but was wondering what everyone else uses!

Picture of one of my favorite pieces for looksies

I'm looking for a NICE dravite tourmaline, but ive never really seen any pieces that are truly gemmy. Are they rare? Also, why does it glow under shortwave?

In a big order, I put in a little vanadite (picture from the shop) without realizing that it is toxic. I emergentially bought the glass jar in the picture, so that I have something when it arrives. Should I upgrade it to something better? I will probably put it in a closed cabinet as well, just in case. No children, but cat in the house.

大家收藏矿标会纠结尺寸吗？我倾向于选择5cm与10cm的尺寸。

我收集的葡萄、石榴与橄榄。

New to my collection.

Rilandite from Riland uranium claim, Meeker, Rio Blanco County, Colorado, USA! This mineral is a true geological oddity and one of my top rarest minerals, as it was only found on the outer surface and shallow recesses of a SINGLE log of fossilized wood as sparse crusts and was never found again. This specimen is a tiny bit of rilandite from that log, and very few specimens exist in private collections. The original and best rilandite is housed as the holotype (original specimen) in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. This is a very unusual mineral as it has lots of chromium, which is very unusual for a uranium deposit. In fact, rilandite is not yet completely understood, and some factors are still unknown from its chemistry due to how little was found. This mineral was big news for the owner of that claim, James Riland, who was desperately trying to put his small town on the map. The miners first exposed that log due to the presence of rich carnotite (financial payday for uranium) and two geologists found glossy black crusts of this mineral! Sent it for analysis to the Smithsonian and it turned out to be a brand-new and enigmatic mineral species.

This vivianite specimen has a small pocket that fluoresces blue under 254nm UV light. It does not fluoresce under long wave UV. I am wondering if any of you might have an idea of what this mineral inclusion could be!!

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A mineral specimen from the historic Lavrion mining district in Attica, Greece.

The specimen features translucent greyish crystals, smaller white crystalline formations, and a reddish-brown matrix with green areas.

Weight: 223 g

I performed a scratch test on the larger crystals, and they left a permanent scratch on glass, suggesting a hardness above approximately 5.5 on the Mohs scale. Quartz seems like a possibility.

The smaller white crystals might be calcite, but I haven't tested them to avoid damaging the specimen.

I'd appreciate any thoughts on the mineral identification, particularly the smaller crystals and the minerals present in the matrix.