Denver Show Report, Sept 0625 Sep 2006 By Robin Rennie The annual Denver Mineral show runs in mid September and is the second largest mineral, fossil and gem event in the USA. The show consists of several shows, the main ones of interest to mineral collectors being the:
- Colorado Mineral and Fossil Show located at the Holiday Inn Central
- The neighbouring show at the Best Western across the road,
- And the main show at the Merchandise Mart.
The Colorado Mineral and Fossil Show (Tuesday 12th till Sunday 17th) is run by Martin Zinn Expositions, with around 200 worldwide dealers spread over 3 floors of the hotels, in the foyer and ballroom, and in tents set up in the carparks around the hotel.
The Holiday Inn Central.
Some dealers such as ourselves exhibit at both this show and at the main show.
The Crystal Classics and Kristalle room at the Holiday Inn.
 |  | | Ian at our room in the Holiday Inn | Dona and Evan Jones (dealer and Arizona mineral collector) discussing a specimen.
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Here is a photo tour of my wanderings through the Holiday Inn.....
 The hallway lined with rooms of dealers  New finds of Galena pseudomorphs after Pyrrhotite from Nikolaevskiy Mine, Dal'negorsk, Russia, at Wright's Rock Shop.
 Rob Sielecki of Ausrox with green Australina Selenite in the background
Rob is mining Prehnite in the Northern Territory of Australia. Here are some of the gem quality specimens made into pretty cabochons, the starburst inclusions are also formed of Prehnite. These are a pretty yellow to pale green colour and should be for sale soon, although I did manage to snag myself one ; )
Collector's Edge always have a very impressive display at both the Holiday Inn and the Main show.
Helene and Steve of Collector's Edge
They had a great selection of Calcites recently out of China, with interesting white opaque caps - very attractive.
There was of course the ever popular Sweet Home Mine Rhodochrosites:
Take a better look at this second photo - these are actually from China! The similarity to Sweet Home was incredible with the same great colour and associations with purple Fluorite and sulphides, but with a carbonate rich matrix, instead of Quartz rich - note the Baryte blade in the next photo. And the Chinese specimens come at a very good price.
Aquamarines from the Erongo Mountains, Namibia at Stefan Stolte of Mineralien Fossilien-Galerie's room.
A huge Australian rock opal specimen found in Chris Moore's room, the English fossil dealer.
Dave Bunk looking happy as always in his room at the Holiday Inn. He
had some lovely pale blue Anhydrite specimens for sale (just seen on
right of photo).
 Another of the English fossil dealers - Trevor George of British Jurassic Fossils with a great range of Ammonites.
Alfredo Petrov relaxing in his room, exhibiting some very nice Bolivian minerals.
Resident Mineral Photographer at the Show, Jeff Scovil is caught in action in his room at the Holiday Inn.
Dona and Dave find a new pet to take home with this baby Woolley Mammoth found outside Extinctions, Inc's room.
 An alternate useage for the bathrooms in the dealers hotel rooms.
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The main Denver show ran 15th to 17th September and consists of 3 different shows in 3 halls of the Merchandise Mart
- The Denver Gem and Mineral Show in the Expo Hall area,
- the Colorado Fossil Expo in the Plaza Annex
- and the Gem and Jewellery show - strictly guarded this year, with only dealers with resale licences allowed in (so no tour for me)
The Denver Gem and Mineral Show fills a huge hall, with corridors running off one side lined with rooms of mineral dealers. Crystal Classics and Kristalle shared a room on one of these corridors.
The Main Expo hall - with plenty of chairs for a rest!
The corridor on which we were located
The Kristalle and Crystal Classics room, we had 7 cases plus numerous drawers of minerals - so plenty to look at!
There were many displays from museums around the world lining the centre in the main hall, with some pretty
spectacular stuff to be seen. This years theme was South America.
The fabulous Mackay Emerald Necklace from the Smithsonian - this 168-carat Colombian Emerald was at least 5 cm in diameter. Very impressive.
I thought this was a really sweet specimen from the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the presence of the Pyrite crystal is important to the intense colour of the Emerald, as it means the iron was prevented from being incorporated into the Emerald, which would have dulled the colour.
This huge specimen of Elbaite (Rubellite) and Quartz was found in 1978 at Jonas Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
 A spectacular Gold crystal from Alta Floresta, Mato Grosso, Brazil, thought to be the largest crystal of gold from Brazil, weighing 3.82 troy oz (119 grams). The crystal displays fantastic hopper/skeletal growth. This is a recent acquisition of the Los Angeles Natural History Museum.
A huge fossil palm leaf, with myself for scale.
 Make your own gemstones in every colour imaginable, from Creative Gems of Texas, the resulting gemstones cut from these cubes of manmade material were suprisingly good, with a lot of sparkle.
Over in the next hall (Plaza Annex) was the Colorado Fossil Expo, there were around 50 dealers specialising in fossils, meteorites, petrified wood etc, The display of skeletons was quite impressive.
Mr Bones is always a great hit at the show, with many children being ‘eaten’ much to their delight.
We visited one of the satellite shows - Denver Expo 2006 - at the National Western Complex, mostly tables of wholesale material - petrified wood, fossils, geodes, jewellery, tumbled stones - note the beautifully dyed Quartz candle holders at the bottom of the photo.
The show ended on a high note for me, with a 1000 mile trip in the truck from Denver over the Rockies, through Utah, the top corner of Arizona, Nevada and back to Kristalle’s offices in California, an absolute treat to for this Australian geologist!
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