Denver Gem & Mineral Show Insights

Rhodochrosite, Wulfenite, Amethyst and Amazonite...oh my.  Most of these specimens exceeded my budget for the day :-)

A few years ago the Denver Spring Show changed its venue from one hotel near the center of town to a newer hotel on the east side of town (Crown Plaza).  The parking at the new venue is more plentiful and much easier to negotiate, there is no scrambling for parking spots or endlessly circling the parking lot to find a space. The Plaza doesn’t have any outdoor vendors so I seem to find fewer good deals at the Plaza than what could be had at the previous hotel. The entire show has become a little higher end as well with fewer dealers, but still makes for a fun-filled and entertaining event. I have 2 theories of attending shows, one is to go early and make sure you have the opportunity to purchase a rare item or two that may be gone by days end. The other theory is wait until the last day and hopefully pick up some good deals that the vendors don’t want to pack up and take home. I suppose one could go twice and try both methods, I used the first method of getting there the first day in hopes of snapping up some early bird specials.

As the show was held in Colorado it seemed like many dealers had some amazonite and smokys to sell with prices up to $15,000 for desirable amazonite and smoky combinations. There were some other minerals that seemed common to many dealers as well including pyrite cubes from Spain and amethyst specimens from Veracruz, Mexico. The bead and low end jewelry booths seemed to be the slowest while the more upscale shops had a lot of lookers and apparent buyers as well.  Tourmaline and aquamarine were also on everybody’s table for sale.  My first stop was to check out Pinnacle5 Minerals dealer, Joe Dorris, of the reality TV show Prospectors and see how he was doing. Traffic was a bit slow at Pinnacle5 but Krystal Dorris was bubbly and happy to answer everyone’s questions.  Joe was home busy working on claim

Some small cabinet amazonite smoky combos

paperwork and taxes but he hoped to wind up the show on Sunday. The quality of specimens at Pinnacle5 Minerals are unmatched as are their prices. I am always looking to price compare at shows and see things I might have that I don’t know their value due to their rarity.  I noticed one vendor had a nice slender 8 inch smoky quartz crystal with excellent luster and fine termination for $1200.  I would have guessed a price closer to $350 would have been fair, I wondered what my similar 11” smoky is worth.  I made the rounds examining a number of vendor’s wares and chatted it up with a few dealers.  

$1200 of smoky bliss

 I only made one offer on a piece of NM amethyst and was told there would be no discounts.  I moved on, perhaps better deals could be made on the last day of the show.  Another vendor selling pyrites by the flat from Spain caught my eye.  Buying crystals by the flat is usually a good deal, but the problem is getting rid of the crystals you don’t want for your collection unless you have a store.  I saw many dealers with single pyrites for $35-$50 that compared to buying an entire flat (24 crystals) of nearly identical material for $200.  I was tempted to purchase an entire flat of pyrite, but that just means more work for me getting rid of the extra 20 pieces after I’ve cherry-picked the flat for the 3 or 4 that I want. 

Gold Anyone?

My last stop was the wholesale area.  I like to check out the wholesale area last after I’ve got a good idea what the vendors have and what they are asking for their specimens. You need a business license to get in the wholesale area but that was no problem.  A club member I know has a business and she said I could check out the wholesale area with her.  I hunted down my rock friend who drove me to the show and told him he might like to check out the wholesale area with us as well. We found 3 separate vendors that had specimens that caught our eye.  My friend loaded up on rhodochrosite while I examined some Rogerley fluorites and Veracruz amethyst.  One dealer had everything discounted by 50% but nowhere was that posted until we got in line to purchase our specimens.  After finding out about the discount we went back into the wholesale area and loaded up on Rogerley fluorite.  A nice flat of 24 purple fluorites for $36 also caught my eye, but I just didn’t want to deal with all the purple fluorite after picking a few out for my own collection (similar to the pyrite problem).  The Rogerley fluorites naturally fluoresce under UV light, so when you take them outside in sunlight (UV) they change color from grey/green to purple/blue. When I recalled the Rogerley mine was closed as of last year I thought I should purchase a couple of specimens as the pieces will only go up in price.  http://www.mineraltown.com/Reports/24/24.php

I thanked the Club member for allowing us in to the wholesale area for her kindness and patience in letting us get some nice wholesale deals and then decided my back needed a rest and had lunch at the Crown Plaza (hotel hosting show). My show buddy was happy to still have some money left after the wholesale deals so he worked on getting a fairly sizeable discount on a tanzanite.  I’m not sure how he does it, but he talked a dealer down considerably from their asking price. After he made the deal even his back was getting tired so we hit the road and made our way back to Colorado Springs before the forecasted snow arrived.  I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy this higher end show all that much, but seeing a few friends and getting a couple deals in the wholesale area made the trip worthwhile

A couple of my purchases within my budget

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Gobbling Up Some Crystals at Lake George Colorado #Amazonite #Smoky quartz #Lake George

In the last couple of years I have seen a slow but steady influx of critters into the Lake George area.  When I first got started prospecting at Lake George, it had been only a couple years after a large fire (Hayman) burnt out thousands of acres of forest land. Nearly 10 years went by until I started seeing large animals on a regular basis within the forest.  Today we had a turkey trot.  Seemed two toms were seeking the attention of one hen though they may have been a bit shy around us only displaying their plumage briefly.  Coincidentally I’ve had good digging results when I see out of the ordinary animals.  Eagles, bear, turkeys, elk and coyotes seem to foreshadow good crystal hunting days.  Deer are too common as we see them nearly every trip out except during hunting season. Today was no exception to the “correlation” between animal siting and good crystal hunting.  

I had been digging in an area exhibiting a fairly strong mineralized pegmatite but hadn’t much to show for my efforts during the last couple of visits, perhaps today a turkey siting or more probable persistence would pay off.  After digging on the pegmatite for a few hours I decided to move my digging up the hill a few feet on the same line as the pegmatite was running.  The pegmatite was still exhibiting shards of well-formed quartz with a few faces so I decided to work the new area awhile. As I dug I hit a spot that had numerous microcline crystals and some quartz but the matrix holding the crystals together and the crystals themselves were very fragile. I’ve run into this situation several times and it’s nearly impossible to remove specimens without breaking them.  The microcline cleavage planes seem exceptionally weak. Bob and I have called these crystals “half baked”.  The crystals fragment easily and we believe something was not quite right during the formation of the crystals within the pegmatite as they lack normal cohesion and fracture quite easily. I worked this spot until it was nearly exhausted with very little to show for my efforts.  Sometimes these areas of weakly formed crystals firm up but not this spot. Instead of continuing up the hill, the quartz seemed better formed and solid to my left so I dug down and left. I got a bit excited when I hit some quartz with a vug behind it, but the vug was nearly empty containing only a few quartz shards and scree. 

Empty Vug with microcline in hand

I continued digging along this rock wall when I was finally rewarded with a couple 3” smoky crystals.  It was at this point that I knew I was close to a pocket and decreased my digging tempo and deepened my approach into the hillside.  Soon more crystals were evident so I called my digging partner Bob over and he got in on the action by helping me remove overburden around the pocket hole.  As I was digging, a few amazonite crystals also began to pop up.  Getting some smoky quartz crystals with amazonite is the prize we always look for and I did manage a couple of small combination specimens this day.  

Pocket opening up with quartz crystals

The amazonite was small and paler than I would have liked but the amazonite also stood up nicely out of the matrix with sharp crystal edges.  While I don’t believe the Smithsonian will be calling me anytime soon for these crystals I was happy with this find.  Persistence, prospecting and careful digging were rewarded with some nice crystal. I’ve dug with folks who seem to jack-rabbit around a hill looking for a crystal pocket near the surface.  I check on these folk’s progress and wonder why they quit digging on a good pegmatite.  Of course I have all summer to dig and I know others can only get out a few times a year so time for them is a limiting factor. I may dig two holes in one day while I’ve seen others dig 10 with no results.  

Amazonite plate in hand (cold day)

Little combo cleaning up nicely

Key to crystal hunting is finding a good pegmatite and sticking with it. I recall I used to ask my mentor and I’ve had other diggers ask me too, “how long do you dig in a quartz seam?”  There is no set answer to this question except I would say if the quartz is exhibiting faces I would dig on it until I had to go home.  Of course there is the other extreme too where people dig all day in dirt, scree and fine grained granite wondering why they can’t find anything.  When I first started digging it took me several trips to find a pocket.  As time goes on I find pockets more frequently due to my digging knowledge and overall experience. Of course knowing where to start digging is the most important part.  Snowing here today... so cold I can't even clean the crystals I just found.  It's 4PM and 31F.