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#MinCup25SideQuest
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A large, shiny, bubbly, blue Smithsonite
I am stoked that #Kyanite won #MinCup25!
I also got to see so many cool minerals at the Smithsonian that weren't a part of the bracket this year. #Smithsonite maybe takes the cake and I hope to vote for it next year!
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10 samples of radioactive minerals on public display. They range in color from brown to greenish to bright yellow.
Either #mannardite has no votes or the results are glitchy :(
I don't have either #cuprosklodowskite or mannardite, but I do have the #radioactive minerals display from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History!
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5 pieces of kyanite, the one on the left is tall and rough. The other four are much smaller and cut into rectangular gems.
The Smithsonian has a bunch of #kyanite! A lot of it is cut like gems but there is also this cool tall piece.
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The lights are turned off and a UV light illuminates neon green and oranges in a collection of florescent minerals
With the lights on, this display looks like a basic collection of grey and brown rocks.
For #carpathite vs #tugtupite I don't have photos exactly but I want to share the florescents display!
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White flaky-looking layers at odd angles with dark specks throughout
I promised a closer look at this #baryte if it moved on to Round Two and I keep my promises to this self-imposed side quest.
I would love to hear how professionals would describe the flaky layers and speckling. I'm sure "halva" isn't the right comparison?
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Two samples of stibnite, on the left is taller with dark grey/black columns and on the right is shorter, covering a brown rock like a bed of moss.
How is #stibnite losing???
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A very neat gray rock with the middle kinda hollowed out and crystals growing inside!
Mental health is still rocky but improving. I haven't yet been back to the museum, but! I found #haüyne a couple of days after its first match and grabbed a photo.
Round TWO!!
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A small 3.7 carat, blue gem cut kyanite.
Also the world's smallest(?) kyanite. There are more of these too, so whichever moves on will get brand-new photos for Round 2.
I'm not gonna post over the weekend, I hope everyone has a great one.
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A large gem cut, light blue sparkling topaz. 146.4 carats.
Posting Round 1 Match 13 early because I need to spend time away from social media, but these are REALLY good ones!
So much #Topaz! There is so much topaz and I'm a sucker for gems.
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A white rock with some darker pointy crystals near the top center. The sign includes the name Zuynite, the chemical formula and "Electric Meatball mine, Quartzite, Arizona"
#MinCup25 Round 1 Match 12
Just #zunyite today! I think this is the best mine name I've seen yet.
Someone tell me if I should look again for #molybdenite but I don't think it's on display.
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A small club shaped rock. That seems like an inelegant way to describe it but it's the best I can do.
After finding #titanite I thought my luck was going to run out, but #thortvietite was waiting in a display near the back of the gallery.
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Yellow-ish gems of varying sizes are mounted and arranged in a circle
#MinCup25 Round 1 Match 11
I was so stinking excited to find BOTH of today's minerals at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
#titanite is displayed in this gorgeous circle of cut stones (and there's more if it moves on!)
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This piece of wavellite has a seam running horizontally with some round crystals protruding off the face. In the face around the spheres, there are rays.
And #MinCup25 Round 1 Match 10, #wavellite
I am loving the habit of the crystals in this, looking like rays coming out of a star!
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Two dioptase pieces, on the left is a dioptase with wulfinite and on the right is just dioptase. The crystals of both are small and deeper green in person but almost blue on camera
Catching up on #MinCup25 Round 1 Match 10, sneaking in under the wire!
Contender #dioptase with a two-for-one sample sale!
Both beautiful deep green crystals! I'm a fan!
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This piece of azurite has blue crystals that range from dark blue to a blue so dark that it just looks black in the photo.
I couldn't capture just how deep blue this #azurite is.
And although I couldn't find #kosmochlor I am FOR SURE voting for it.
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One example of cool but not the actual contender
Is "hairy" how geologist describe #actinolite?
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Tugtupite. Small but sparkling white crystals with a brown rocky bit on the side.
OK here's the question - if I can't find one of the contenders, should I post something else that is cool but unrelated or just post the one mineral that the Smithsonian has on display?
#tugtupite
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A sample of hematite, mostly black with some brown spots. It shows layers facing the viewer towards the outer edges.
For the second match in a row, I could only find one contender at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. #sanidine was elusive, however #hematite wasn't too tough to find. I love the layers on this!
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Four mineral specimens. Top row has spodumene (gray and rocky) and ilvaite (dark black and dramatic columns). Bottom row has cancrinite (yellow with gray and black blotches, kinda like a tortoiseshell sitting in the sun) and leucite (a grey base with a crystal structure that looks like it could be picked up and rolled like a d20)
And for Round 1, Match 6 I could only find #leucite which I will share along with its neighbors spodumene, ilvaite, and cancrinite.
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A museum display case, about one third filled with silver and two thirds with copper. The silver pieces are smaller, in general, but both the silver and copper have dendritic crystals which form branching figures.
It looks like #silver might be on the way out, so I'll share the silver and copper display.
I'm starting to learn the words for the different shapes that crystals make, so shout out to silver and copper for being (sometimes) dendritic!
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A cute lil hunk of calcite, pinkish in color. The sign reads Calcite with hematite, Cumbria, England. I have left off the formula because I don't know how to transcribe it!
I need you to know that you are all getting *bespoke* *hand-selected* *customized for the moment* photos. I'm just weird enough to do this for (maybe) a month.
Anyway, I'm getting photos for the next two rounds, in the mean time MORE #calcite
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I was disappointed in the #silver display at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Gold had a whole case while silver and copper shared one. Also, there weren't any polished pieces.
I apparently didn't take a picture. This is going great.
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A pearly white hexagon of calcite on a base with darker spots of galena.
OK, one last #calcite for the road before we move onto tonight's face off!
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A close up of the large center pieces of calcite in the Smithsonian museum display. The central piece is kinda football shaped but larger, yellow on the ends with a vertical purple band in the middle.
#perovskite is currently in the lead and there are so many more #calcite specimens that aren't gonna get posted!
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A gray metallic rectangle of perovskite in a display case with other minerals around the edges
#Perovskite only had one specimen that I could find. I'm going to have to do more research on this before voting. And then consider what to do if it wins.
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A museum display case with over 50 calcite pieces, in many colors, sizes, and shapes.
I hope you like #calcite because the Smithsonian has loads of it!! This isn't even the most impressive example!
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An impossibly large beryl tower, cut to make it sparkle impressively. The sign reads: Dom Pedro Aquamarine 10,363 carats Pedra Azul, Minas Gerais, Brazil An immense beryl crystal found in the late 1980s yielded the Dom Pedro-the largest known aquamarine gem. The original crystal was almost two feet in length and weighed nearly 60 lbs. In 1992-1993, gem artist Bernd Munsteiner fashioned the gem and named it after the first two emperors of Brazil. A pattern of tapering "negative cuts" is faceted into the two reverse faces of the obelisk. These facets reflect the light, making it appear to glow from within. The vertical "lines" near the base are hollow tubes that formed naturally in the original crystal. Gift of Jane Mitchell and Jeffery Bland, 2011
My #MinCup25SideQuest failed to find #Haüyne. Instead, I will show off my favorite #beryl
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Two examples of the mineral Jeremejevite, one long and slender and the other cut like an oval gem. They are sort of blue and sort of blue-purple?
#MinCup25 Round Three! #MinCup25SideQuest
I was not at all sure I was going to be able to find today's contenders, but I found #jeremejevite
Very pretty! Somehow less blue than I expected?
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What I learned today - I forgot how freaking cool this shit is in person. It's so hard to capture in pictures!
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