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

This locality has, in rare spurts, put out some of the finest copper specimens of the last few decades. This particular piece is unusual for its look of being a concatenated chain of super sharp and 3-dimensional copper crystals stacked one on top of another. I love how the stack has sharp untwinned crystals right to the top an dthen the final summit is a spinel twinned copper, like a crooked star on top of a Christmas tree in appearance. The overall look of the piece is just, very sharp an ddistinct from the normal styles here. It has a natural oxidation patina to it, and has not been cleaned to disturb that subtly graded reddish-brown look (which many copper collectors love). ex Ed David collection by exchange to me. Joe Budd photos

We do not see a lot of copper, from the Tsumeb mine, all things considered. This particular specimen features an interlinked chain of elongated copper crystals growing attractively on contrasting matrix, where the copper has been replaced by cuprite. It is dramatic and very interesting, and I have not seen another specimen of this replacement from Tsumeb in such size and richness (only as small, isolated replacements). ex Marshall Sussman Tsumeb collection.

Rarely do you see a loop-de-looped stalactite like this, that has turned back in on itself. Elegant and attractive for its slight blush of green color (due to copper runoff in the mines), this is a really interesting piece, visually. Complete all around. from the Arizona collection of Les and Paula Presmyk. Joe Budd Photos.

A sharp copper cluster that literally stands on its own two feet�displaying great horizontally and standing on its own, balanced on the points as shown. However, it ALSO looks incredible displayed upright, vertically - with either end equally fine as bottom or top. The piece is complete all around, though contacted and naturally flat in back, rather than as robustly crystallized as on the front face. The patina is superb, and makes the clean lines and shapes all the more sharply defined by its subtle coloration.The largest crystal is 5.5 cm , doubly terminated. Even the smaller crystals in the cluster are outstanding and sharp. This piece came from an old collection we got into, and probably dates to the 1800's heyday of these mines. Joe Budd Photos.

This producing mine has produced some amazing things during its short , recent run. This is a gorgeous, very bright small cabinet piece with crystals to 1.8 cm, from the fall-2011 finds here of this highly unusual pseudomorph (replacement) : copper has completely replaced the earlier crystals of cuprite, preserving their form and making for a beautiful specimen at the same time. This piece has a surface sparkle to it, caused by a later generation of microscopic copper deposition, that is hard to capture in photos without seeming to "over-light" the shots. So , in person, it is correct in this color but is even more sparkly and lively, compared to most copper specimens. I have never seen such sharp copper replacements after cuprite in this size, from other locales. And this is one of the better large plates of this style for overall aesthetics. No more have come out since, by the way - and the mine is rapidly burning through its specimen-rich oxidation zone. Joe Budd photos.

A remarkable single, floater crystal of HUGE size. This piece is complete all around, totallypristine, and has a remarkable, interesting patina to it. It is the largest fine Russian copper crystal I know of, personally; and moreover, is a major copper crysatl on a worldwide scale as well. It is similar, in fact, only to the famous few Arizona copper twins found in the 1970s and now valued at their weight in platinum. Joe Budd Photos.