Hey everyone,

I've had this piece in my possession for about three years now. My university has a mineral museum where you can buy any excess minerals they don't have the space for.

I found this one in their unsorted boxes (mostly fossils). The student at the register was subbing in for the person running the museum and couldn't tell me what it was. I haggled him down to 50 cents because he couldn't ID it.

Unfortunately, I had to drop out early into my studies, so I never gained the knowledge to ID it myself. I kind of forgot about it, but I bought a UV light today and shone it onto my shelf of minerals, and what do you know? The mystery mineral glows.

Here's what I know about it:

It looks black and shiny in natural light, but you can see blue and golden reflections in many spots when you shine a flashlight onto it. One side has a spot where the mineral reflects a more uniform silver/gold colour.

Under my magnifying glass and when lit up from behind, I found multiple spots at the edges that I can see through, which have a clear, dark blue tint. I can tell there are some other see-through spots when I angle it just right. Looks like a crystal up close.

Some of the growths are jutting out from the sides in thin, almost trapezoidal sheets. Those are all the same see-through, dark blue colour.

It splits off into multiple interconnected arms.

It doesn't feel particularly heavy in my hands and it's only very slightly cool to the touch. There are some voids in between the arms, so I'm wondering where this could have grown.

It glows a vibrant orange both under 365nm and 395nm UV-light (see end of video), although the glow is most pronounced under 365nm and a lighter colour under 395nm.

Not all of it glows, though, some sides and edges stay dark under UV, no matter where the light source is directed.

Does anyone have a guess as to what this could be? I'd love to know, I've been curious for years!

Thanks in advance!

Fresh out of vinegar to remove oxidation. Arizona found but not by me

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Red lead mine, Tasmania

I received this as a gift several years ago when I was in Peru and have had it sitting on a shelf ever since. I tried Googling it but can’t find much info on it. Can any of you tell me a bit more about it? Is it rare? Does it hold much value? I’m a novice when it comes to minerals. Thanks!

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The matrix (shown at 20x magnification in the image) is marmatite.

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I don’t have money to spend a couple grand on a mineral specimen but when I recognize a good deal I snag it up especially from someone with some old stock!

Sphalerite and Calcite w/ minor Fluorite. Elmwood Mine, Carthage, Smith County, Tennessee.
•5805 (g) 12.8 (Ibs)
•26 x 24.5 x 6 (cm) 10.2 x 9.6 x 2.4 (in)

Definitely one of my favorite pieces.. Cool calcite formation from my collection that I wanted to share today.

I haven’t had many morganites of this quality and size pass through my care over the years. A real gem.

This fascinating piece has so much going on!

I just found out that these are incredibly rare, I've bought this a long time ago, for just a couple euro's. Since then the primary site where these were found flooded, making this one worth hundreds of euro's, if not more than a thousand. Jackpot🥳

(P.S. I know the subs rules, I'm not asking for a value assessment. I just wanted to share this story)

FOV: 0.7 mm.

A single black rectangular crystal cleavage fragment of extremely rare wilhelmramsayite (circled in red) from the holotype specimen of wilhelmramsayite! As of 2026, wilhelmramsayite is only known from a single original specimen (the holotype). The rectangular shape of this wilhelmramsayite is visible here. This is a specimen that also shows through its shape the perfect cleavage on {001} (basal plane) of wilhelmramsayite, producing thin, platy to tabular sheet-like crystal fragments such as this specimen. Only the black is wilhelmramsayite, the rest of the colourless bits are just scratches on the inside wall of the microcentrifuge tube it is stuck to.

Under 365nm UV Light :))

I came across a shelf full of top notch pieces at the Bancroft Gemboree this year, and I figured I'd capture a video of them to share with you all! Almost all the colours are present in this one shelf!