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SHOW REPORTS
Report 1 Report 2 Report 3 Report 4 Report 5
The Offical
Munich Show Website
| Another day and
another set of surprises from the 2004 Munich Show!
On the way to the show I met up with California gem dealer Mark Kaufman on the U-Bahn. We had the chance to catch up and talk about what we've seen to this point in the show. Once there I went straight to the ATM machine to self-inflict currency exchange rate wounds. If you ever travel to Europe or elsewhere abroad I find it simplest and more importantly, cheapest to extract cash from an ATM machine. The commission rate I pay is about 1/3 of 1% of the amount. Traveler's checks are an unnecessary way to give money away as many people get hit with a 3-5% commission and most dealers do not like taking them. Credit cards are almost entirely not accepted at shows. Dealers with US bank accounts will take checks frequently but the coin of the realm - the Euro in cash form - is what powers this show. Once at the show I spent most of this day in Hall A5. Early on I found Spanish dealer Luis Miguel Fernandez Burillo who had some specimens of dioptase from a new find at the Cobra Mine, Pampa, Nazca, ICA, Peru. The dioptase crystals are typically associated with chyrsocolla. I selected three specimens and moved on down the hall...
This year the show organizers have created
a new attraction featuring some of the most prominent mineral dealers in
the world. It is called the International mineral pavilion.
I snapped several images of dealers and some of their specimens from this
area which are presented below.
In the center of the pavilion is a bar with food and beverage service. There are formal entry ways from four directions to this enclosed area. 
This is the booth area shared by Kristalle - Wayne & Dona Leicht and Ian Bruce. That's Ian in the center and Wayne with his back to the photographer. Pretty classy arrangement! Herb & Monica Obodda had a booth in the pavilion also. They had two enormous and striking specimens on display recently brought out of Afghanistan. They had to spend a lot of time cleaning the window cases as a lot of people were bumping their noses into the glass... If you have any interest in these feel free to contact Herb directly via email using this address: info@obodda.com 
This is a 25 cm tourmaline with quartz from Nuristan.
After lunch I went over to visit with Laurent Thomas of Polychrome minerals and gems. You will recall the Laurent shook up the 2003 Tucson Show with his display of the new mineral pezzottaite from Madagascar. Well, Laurent has been busy since in Madagascar with some new minerals from that island country. First, he showed me what was joking described as a specimen of red dioptase.  
. This is the "red dioptase" from Madagascar. It is a 20 cm specimen with richly colored crystals of tourmaline variety liddicoatite to 1.5 cm in length. I pointed two California collectors to this specimen who were at the show and it is now sold.
Next in Laurent's stash of goodies was
his new find of Calcite with laumontite and/or stilbite from Sambava, Antsirana,
Madagascar. Calcite usually is something I gloss over on but these
are significant with two twinning properties. The calcite "crystals"
are essentially comprised of 4 crystals arranged with two twinning habits!
Sorbonne Museum Curator, Jean-Claud Broulliard, determined that the crystals
are twinned on 00*1 and 01*8. The crystals are lustrous and gemmy
and many have associations with stilbite and/or laumontite. Unfortunately,
most have the cursed cleavage of a tip or scuff. I was again happy
to have an early look at these and was able to get a dozen or so undamaged
thumbnail to miniature sized specimens. Below is an image of one
of the best in the entire lot - already sold unfortunately.
This is one of the best specimens
in the lot that I selected. It is about
 
This is another of the fine calcite specimens which shows the two twinning planes clearly. It is about 6 cm in height.
Below are some images of the calcite mine site in Madagascar that Laurent allowed me to photograph. 
 
Laurent is in the photo on the left with several of the crew of miners. The image on the right is of an intact pocket with laumontite and calcite.
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