[Rockhounds] Gemstones in a War Zone...

[Tim Jokela Jr.]

Well, there's a ton of really cool minerals from Afghanistan/Pakistan.

Personally, I'd not ask a neophyte to choose minerals for me, the 
probability of disappointment is high. Eg. what if he brings back a pretty 
pink tourmaline crystal, looks great but no termination, for a bargain price 
of $500... and you have to pay him. Or say a nice aqua on matrix... but it's 
glued on. It's your choice though, taking a flier on a hundred bucks might 
be fun.  I'd be extra dubious about gem rough, you really want to see that 
stuff in person, and know what the current state of 
faking/treating/enhancement is. Buying minerals at or near their source 
seldom guarantees any sort of bargain price.

Any mineral show will provide you with a nice selection of material from 
that area, as will the internet. Lazurite, afghanite, sodalite xls, 
brookite, anatase, spodumenes, tourmalines, aquas, bastnaesite, forsterite, 
tons of choices.

Cheers,

T


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary Brown" <gbrown at catspaw-minerals.com>
To: "'Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors'" 
<rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 11:58 AM
Subject: [Rockhounds] Gemstones in a War Zone...


Oh my, let's get off the flames, eh?

A note from a friend:

~~~~~

My cousin’s heading back over to the war zones for a couple of months, 
specifically Afghanistan, and we got to talking about stones. He picked up 
some emeralds last time he was there, relatively cheap, which turned out to 
be fairly good stones. One of them, about 2.5 carats with nice color, was 
his wife’s valentine’s present. He wanted to know if there was something 
else he could be on the lookout for, too, besides just emeralds.

Any ideas? I’m thinking not so much cut gemstones, because I suspect he got 
very, very lucky this time (although if you saw him, probably not all THAT 
lucky—I sure wouldn’t want him coming to me to ask for his money back in an 
annoyed way...). But what about collector’s stones, crystals, etc...?

~~~~~

And so, huddled masses yearning to give me answers.  What sayeth thee?

GcB


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