A classic "feather silver" for this former East german silver mining locality, where many were found during the communist era and hoarded. Today, these stashes come to market in bits and spurts, though good specimens are not common. This is an unusually rich piece with very SOLID feathers. It is overall very elegant, yet robust. The feathers smother the hefty, native arsenic matrix.Joe Budd Photos

At 900 grams, this is an astonishing, dense, solid gold specimen in the shape of a ring, or halo. The entire thing is composed of minutely crystallized gold, with sparkly faces and points all over it when seen with a loupe. It is not "just" a nugget. It has long been known, among the relatively few dealers who knew the reclusive previous owner, as one of the best pieces in a collection built between the 1950s and around 2000. It belonged to Hubert De Monmonier (1919-2007), and was donated by bequest to the University of Arizona Museum to add to their displays and to provide specimens for sale to establish an endowment fund for museum operations, in perpetuity. This was, to my mind, one of the top two or three specimens they let go in the recent deacquisition sale. It is rumoured to be the largest crystallized gold from South America and, to my admittedly limited knowledge, this is indeed the case.Joe Budd Photos

A rare Western Australia CRYSTALLIZED gold, massing 780 grams! This remarkable crystallized nugget shows none of the signs of alluvial tumbling which characterise your standard Aussie nugget. CRYSTALS shoot out, all over it, giving a very interesting horizon in the shape of an "eagle," as its nickname suggests. This does not have the lustre of California material, but for Aussie it is insanely rare, big, and fine. The color is bright and indicative of a high purity! This piece is 5 inches across and is complete 360 degrees, all around and on both sides. It belonged to Hubert De Monmonier (1919-2007), and was donated by bequest to the University of Arizona Museum to add to their displays and to provide specimens for sale to establish an endowment fund for museum operations, in perpetuity. This was, to my mind, the best specimen they let go in the recent sale. It is rumoured to be the largest crystallized gold from South America and, to my admittedly limited knowledge, this is indeed the case.Joe Budd Photos

This specimen has the ULTIMATE luster for a manganite, just shockingly bright and shiny. For me, this is the prime criteria to start taking a Manganite specimen to the next level of quality, to the top tier. Next comes size�the crystals reach 4.3 cm in height. They are unusually isolated, perched above smaller crystals and dominant. Normally, they tend to be jumbled together. The piece is undamaged, elegant, and displays them with dominance. The luster is so bright, and the piece 3-dimensional, that it is hard to photograph. This find of the mid-1880s set the standard and still does, for the species. To date, nothing of near this quality has come from any other mine, for the species. I would say 130 years of modern mining is pretty good insurance on non-replication. This specimen has a long history. It was in the Budapest Museum, prior to WWII. An American collector named Hal Miller ended up with the piece, as part of a mineral collection gift from his Uncle (who was a mineral collector himself, and a soldier stationed there at the time). Miller kept the piece and other classics for decades before selling them to Colorado collector Richard Kosnar in the late 1980s. Kosnar , who specialized in the European classics himself, then kept the piece for over 20 years until he passed away a few years ago. At that time, this was sold by his family, through me, to Dallas collector Wally Mann. I have recently exchanged it back, and am happy now to offer it on the public market for the first time (ever!). This is a superlative example of one of the ultimate classics of mineral science and lore, and it happens to be a piece that runs in line with modern aesthetics and taste in beauty. The specimen is "black" only in the sense of a flat word that means nothing towards impact. It has to the eye, a color and a brilliance and a sparkle that transcends most every other example of this species I have seen (even ones that are much more expensive).Joe Budd Photos

This is, according to the man who brought them out to market in the last 5 years, the finest miniature recovered in the modern reworking of this old locale. It was found around 2008 and was in the collection of Jason New until recently (he and his family run a large specimen mining operation in Mexico , and he has superb taste in specimens to keep!). I am told that the production of truly good pieces from this mine is now only a few per year, with the majority being "wholesale or bulk level" material. The large crystal is 3.2 cm tall and is SUPER GEMMY. You may have seen old apatites from this mine. They were gemmy too. But, this one has a degree of clarity and internal brightness that must rank it highly, and to my eye it is simply a little bit finer in quality than any older examples I have seen in the size class. It is brighter, sharper, more lustrous, as a gem crystal. Also, the piece is simply very aesthetic, overall.Joe Budd Photos

Very rarely can one get a gem euclase on matrix, let alone a piece of this high quality. The crystal about 1.5 inches long, is glassy and dramatic, with a brilliant lustre and color that has to be seen to be believed. These few gemmy, matrix euclases from this emerald mine are rated as the best of species, and I would think this must be among the best matrix miniatures known. It came out around 2003-2004. It is, surely, in rarified company. .Joe Budd Photos. I have to admit i sold this perhaps 3-4 years ago, but just had it back for cleaning , base, and photography ; and so its only posted here for fun. This euclase is simply awesomely colorful, and impactful, in person.

This is a rare specimen from the famous tourmaline pocket of all tourmaline pockets, the December of 1972 Bluecap Pocket found by Bill Larson and John McClain. one of the pieces is a bluecap tourmaline from bill larson�s famous 1972 bluecap pocket!!! There were only a few dozen specimens of this size or larger found, and today most are tied up in either museums or the major private collections. They simply are NOT available on the market at any price, in normal times. This crystal is nearly pristine, too, despite its age, because it has been with the original owner in a European collection for 40 years. It is complete all around, though there is a tiny 3-4mm ding on the top right side (but this is just trivial in context and barely visible from the front). There is some contacted albite on the back and the back makes a slanted face, that means the crystal is thinner at the top than the bottom. Also this is unusual, it looks all the more incredible from the front because the colours, both the deep pink and blue, are more intense when the piece is backlit because of the thinner top depth. The pink glows incredibly intense, like neon pink, when backlit! Most importantly in terms of valuing these today, the lustre on the top face is critical. To command the top level of price and respect, the top must be glassy. More crystals were found later in two subsequent, smaller pockets, that had terminations of moderate lustre or color. This piece is from the first and most famous pocket, though.Joe Budd Photos

Tourmaline from the Himalaya Mine is known for its exhibitions of break-healing and growth interruptions, which sometimes create "bent" crystals. This particular specimen shows another style resulting from the disruptive environment of this pegmatite. When found in the early 90's, this was referred to as the "healed pocket" because nearly all the crystals, which are beautifully intergrown with nice lustrous quartz points, showed broken terminations that had then been "healed" by a later phase of tourmaline growth. So there was no extension and regrowth of the crystal afterwards, but just a soft covering of the broken tips, resulting in a weird flowing look to the terminations here. On close inspection, they look scallopped, as if composed of many small multiple terminations. Although rare for this or any other mine, this is how 90% of the pocket was , when found. The top crystal in the cluster, though, shows a completely normal, sharp, flat, termination for contrast (do not ask me how that could have happened!). Overall, a VERY interesting piece, of some elegance, from a highly unique pocket at this famous mine. ex Larry Conklin collection.Joe Budd Photos

A fine mass of spongy copper, consisting of minute crystals grown together into a solid mass, from a rare locality. This was collected by German collector JM Welting several decades ago. It is complete on both sides.Joe Budd Photos