20 Most Beautiful Minerals And Stones in the World

[DFW]

44. Quite the minerologist yourself, I see

The rutilated quartz is about 13 inches long and around 5½ inches wide. It is VERY heavy!


Yes, that is a green tourmaline you saw. It was an incredible stroke of luck for me. It is about a foot long, and something like that today probably costs more than a new car. What happened was that there was a mineral shop in Provincetown on Cape Cod, and I occasionally looked in there to see if there was anything I wanted for my collection. I had seen this tourmaline crystal in his street window for about ten years in a row, and had just assumed it was a black tourmaline. The way he had his display lit up, the light went right over it, and no color was visible at all.

Then one day, I was walking past his shop in the late afternoon, and the sun's rays caught the crystal just right, and I freaked. I saw that all these years I had assumed it was a black tourmaline, I had been wrong. So, apparently, had everyone else. He remarked that I was the first one in over ten years to even ask to look at it. He asked if I wanted it for its "crystal energy," and I drew a blank. That whole movement had passed me completely by, and I had no idea what he was talking about. He explained to me what "Healy Feelies" were, and I said, no, I just collected minerals.

He then told me he had bought the piece ages ago on a trip to Minas Gerais, Brazil, thinking someone would want it in the States, but no one had ever asked to look at it. I said nothing, but thought to myself, "well, my man, if you display it in such a manner that every single potential collector thinks it's a black tourmaline, of COURSE no one will ask to see it." Just to get his money out of it, he asked me a token 7% over his cost, which must have been some 10+ years prior, which makes it about 25 years ago now. I jumped at the chance, knowing I'd never again get a chance at a foot-long green tourmaline crystal that wasn't in the tens of thousands.

Some day, I need to do a good photo series on the Chinese flourites that good old Wang Guo brought me over the years. Like cubed water!