The best cuprite in the world, gram for gram, came from this remote gold mine. This totally gemmy, red cuprite crystal glows with even moderate backlighting. It has a natural, lustrous, surface. This is the best thumbnail I have seen from this highly restricted find in a gold mine, where few pieces ever came out. They trickled out for a few years around 1999-2003 or so. Most have damage: this crystal is pristine save for one sub-millimeter ding on one edge only. Otherwise it is 360 degrees, complete. for my eye, this is one of the finest cuprite thumbnails possible to own and was a star piece in the Sherman collection. From the Roland and Kathy Sherman thumbnail collection: they are competitive thumbnail exhibitors from Southern California, specializing in copper species. Joe Budd Photos

A sharp miniature, with crystals to 1.4 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 very sparkly and lively, compared to most copper specimens. I have never seen such fine copper replacements after cuprite, from other locales. This new (and self-liquidating) mine has produced some amazing things during its short , recent run. Joe Budd photos.

A sharp miniature, very aesthetic, 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. The crystals here reach 1.3 cm in size and show a superb degree of symmetry and perfection in form. 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 very sparkly and lively, compared to most copper specimens. I have never seen such fine copper replacements after cuprite, from other locales. This new (and self-liquidating) mine has produced some amazing things during its short , recent run. Joe Budd photos.

A sharp miniature, very aesthetic, 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. The crystals here reach 1.2 cm in size and show a superb degree of symmetry and perfection in form. 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 very sparkly and lively, compared to most copper specimens. I have never seen such fine copper replacements after cuprite, from other locales. This new (and self-liquidating) mine has produced some amazing things during its short , recent run. Joe Budd photos.

This is a dramatic combination piece featuring cuprites to 2 cm, enmeshed in a latticework of ivy-like copper. Some of the cuprites show a partial replacement and alteration into copper, where it looks like the copper "ivy" has invested into the cuprite crystal, like an infection. On closer look, it seems the matrix they are sitting on , of copper, is composed of a previous generation of pseudomorphs as well. This kind of alteration, caught in progress, is very neat, visually! And, it is seldom seen. The Russian examples now coming out are the finest and largest copper pseudomorphs after Cuprite, that I know of. This piece, for contrast of color and form, really shows the effect off nicely. From new finds of fall, 2011.. Joe Budd photos.