Apatite from Imilchil is generally small and frankly has not interested me much before. This choice, robust, complete crystal is unusual for its size and geometric perfection. I very much like the extra bevelled faces at the termination. From new finds of Novermber-December 2010, this was one of the largest intact, complete crystals available at the Tucson show of 2011. Joe Budd Photos

From famous finds here in the early 2000s, this is a brilliantly lustrous and sparkly specimen with sphalerite perched on translucent, stumpy quartz crystals. The color is very unique and interesting - glowing red-orange sphalerite with yellow highlights. Totally unique find and appearance! This specimen looks good from several angles and is one of the finer pieces I have seen turn up again recently. Joe Budd Photos

This is a literally spherical diamond, 11.23 carats in size and just a hair over 1 cm in diameter. It would be considered relatively large for its style, called "ballas" in diamond classification. Although round, it is not rounded by erosive forces and occurred like this naturally. According to Wikipedia's article on diamonds, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_properties_of_diamond : "Some diamonds found in Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are polycrystalline and occur as opaque, darkly colored, spherical, radial masses of tiny crystals; these are known as ballas and are important to industry as they lack the cleavage planes of single-crystal diamond." This is a perfect example, and is very translucent and attractive as well. It has a pleasing slight beige tint to the color - most are more gray in tone. From an old collection, and then recently in the Jim Houran collection of gem thumbnail crystals for a few years. Joe Budd Photos

This sharp specimen is one of the finest single crystals I have seen in watching these trickle out for about a dozen years. It has exceptional sharpness, whereas most are rounded; and it also has a great surface lustre, where most are matte finish. The even coloration and deep saturation also add to its qualities, and make it stand out from the others I have seen - many bigger, but not finer. From the noted pseudomorph collection of Ken Roberts. This is a rare replacement pseudomorph. Joe Budd photos

A sharp, and rather large, vanadinite crystal from this classic US locale! It is intensely colored, and very dramatically hoppered in its growth. Ex Evan Jones collection. Try to find a more impressive Arizona vanadinite thumbnail!!! I think you would be hard pressed to do so. However, I need to note there is one clean repair to part of the tip, visible from the rear but unseen from the front. Joe Budd photos

An elegant, tapered crystal of simply ridiculous size for the species, from old workings in Russia . It is 915 grams, nearly a kilo in size! When I bought it, it was attributed originally to "Siberia" and we assume from a similar piece on MINDAT, that it is most likely from the Malchan pegmatite as similar style pieces were posted by well known Russian collectors. This is an old piece that originally was from the Fred Pough Collection (and has his handwritten label, as well). Fred was curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and was a well known author and mineralogist wth a large and diverse collection. I was just floored when I saw this. Its "just a danburite" I know, but what a monster?! I purchased this from Cal Graeber in the 1990s for the first time. He had obtained it from the collection of Gerad Herfurth, previously. Since that time, I sold it and recently was able to buy a collector's Russian suite and get it back again. Joe Budd photos

A gorgeous matrix piece with a 2.5 cm tall brookite standing straight up, yet protected by the matrix! Richard Kosnar had a well known collection specializing in, among other suites, alpine cleft minerals of the Swiss/French Alps, Pakistan, and the Dodo deposit in Russia. He had a standing order in the 1980s-1990s to buy the best he could get of the Russian alpine-type material from the dealership of Van Scriver, who were bringing so much of it to market through their deep Russian contacts. This piece was recovered by a skilled Russian collector in July 1996, after going back into an old pocket where miners had previously recovered large, gemmy quartz crystals for which this locale is famous (and for which the miners sought to get their more obvious "payday"). I am told that this brookite specimen is one of only two of this aesthetics and magnitude I have seen from the locality, the other being a piece in the Ed David collection of similar magnitude but slightly lesser aesthetics (and it came from the same pocket, via the same dealers Star and Brad van Scriver). The significance of this piece, its aesthetics, its pristine condition, and the sheer beauty of the brookite itself , puts this near the top of the species list for my taste. New material from Pakistan has come to market in the early 2000's , and these perhaps are the only competition for the best of the Dodo material (though, generally, they aren't on such nice matrix nor so gemmy in this size range). Held unseen for nearly 20 years, I obtained this piece from his family after Richard Kosnar passed away. Joe Budd photos. Also pictured in the MR Vol. 30, No. 6 (Nov-Dec 1999) on page 433, Figure 15.

A cherry-red, translucent rhomb of rhodochrosite is the center of this superb, display-quality miniature, which is both aesthetic and significant for the size and price range. The crystal is 4 cm across, and the associated hubnerite is 1.6 cm long. The rhodochrosite is complete all around, 360 degrees, and shows sharp stepped growth which is rather unusual in rhodo crystals of this size from Sweet Home. The result equates to more faces, and more reflections. The whole crystal is translucent and glows when backlit. Moreover, the edges are actually see-through gemmy. For balance, color, size, it would be VERY hard to find a miniature as choice and special as this one, in the price range. Most specimens sold today are simply mediocre miniatures, just an "example" of a rhodo. This piece, I have always felt was special. It was formerly in the private collection of a retired mineral dealer. Joe Budd photos.

Malachite has completely replaced azurite on this classic specimen, which is unusually accented by primary malachite tufts on the replaced larger crystals. For my taste, this is the most aesthetic example in its size range I have ever seen of this important classic American find (they were found circa mid-1900's I have been told). This is a specimen with a rich and long history, that I have known for a long time and finally had a chance to get back at Tucson of 2011 with the sale of parts of the Roberts pseudomorph collection. It is a superbly composed specimen with the best aesthetics you could imagine in this size range, for these classic Bisbee pseudomorphs. The noted pseudomorph collection of dealer and collector, Ken Roberts, specialized in aesthetic and colorful pseudos. The piece was back-tracked to well-known Arizona collector Dick Graeme, who sold it to collector Jeff Kurtzman. It then passed into the Laura Thompson collection by the early 1990s (Laura kept her own suite of aesthetic, sculptural pieces she liked, apart from her husband Wayne's dealer stock and collection). I bought it from the Thompsons in 2001 and sold it to good friend and US-minerals collector (and now my gallery manager!), Kevin Brown within about 2 minutes, the time it took to walk from the Thompsons room back to my room and call him. Kevin kept this until 2009 when he sold it to Ken Roberts to fund another purchase. Ken, despite living in Tucson and specializing in pseudos, did not have one this good after 40 years of specializing in the material - that should tell you how much we all thought of this specimen. And now, 10 years after I first sold it to the day almost, I was able to buy it back at Tucson of 2011 as Ken sold his collection at the show. The piece has not been "over-cleaned" and retains some original pocket clay around the base. Joe Budd photos. NOTE ADDED from collector Les Presmyk, with thanks: The late 1940's, probably 1947 or 1948,from the 1300 level of the Campbell shaft

A highly unusual thing, here! This is a complete and total replacement of an unusually elongated uvite tourmaline for which this locale is famously known, by the rare strontium-aluminum phosphate species Svanbergite. I have never seen another, personally. I can only assume that this crystal must, although a pseudomorph, rank very highly in terms of the size of crystals known for this species. From the noted pseudomorph collection of dealer and collector, Ken Roberts. Joe Budd photos

Chrysoberyl from this locale usually occurs as singles, or as unaesthetic clusters on rare occasion (and usually they are opaque and with poor lustre). This cluster however, is a complete-all-around piece with beautiful crystals showing lustre and translucency. It sparkles and shows off in almost any display angle. Old, classic, and rare. Joe Budd photos

A rare example of this classic, turn-of-the-1900s era, pseudomorph in which malachite and azurite together formed a cast around selenite, which then dissolved out and left the crystals hollow. From the noted pseudomorph collection of dealer and collector, Ken Roberts. Joe Budd photos