[Rockhounds] Virgin Valley opal pick picture

[Glen Miller]

Greetings all:

I've posted a picture of my "opal pick" at

http://tech.ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/LA-Rocks/photos/browse/e2e1

I hope that is a publicly available site.  The yellow plastic 
(fiberglass?) handle is obvious. It had a True Value Hardware sticker 
on it when it was new. The two tines have slightly different angles 
to their points. One side is best for digging in a vertical bank; the 
other is best for breaking up clay clods on horizontal ground. The 
pick was being sold at the Royal Peacock 2 years ago for $60.

The Estwing pick is included for scale and because it is probably 
familiar to most collectors.

The pick on the left was introduced to me by a miner from the former 
San Manuel copper mine north of Tucson, AZ, as a "pickeroo." That is 
probably a local term they used for it. I found one after much 
searching online at a hardware store in Idaho. One name of that pick 
is technically a "Finnish hoe." I was surprised to see one in use in 
(as I recall) a video on quartz mining in Arkansas. The pickeroo is 
extremely handy in pulling down muck on a slope and even for moving 
small amounts of dirt out of an inclined hole when a shovel isn't available.

Glen