Minerals.net

The highlight of the mineral and gemstone events every February is the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show®. This is a very large show that takes place in the spacious Tucson Convention Center, and it is the grand finale of the myriad of mineral and gemstone events throughout the city. From the end of January through mid-February, the city of Tucson is bustling with activity related to minerals and gemstones. Although the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show®, also known as the "main show" continues to lose important dealers to other more permanent mineral venues throughout the city, it still has a very strong presence of dealers as well as the best and most expansive exhibits of any mineral show on earth.

As far as activity in Tucson, with the InnSuites show now a relic of the past, the Mineral City show and the surrounding area have become the main center of activity for serious collectors. There are also the more permanent, year-round galleries that have opened up with several prominent dealers changing the way they handle Tucson.

I arrived at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show® on opening day on Thursday, February 9. Foot traffic was heavy, and there were many amazing exhibits. The show was more spacious with many of the big dealers no longer at the show, but the show staff did a good job of spacing the exhibits and dealers strategically so the void wasn't as noticeable as it was last year.

This first post of Tucson 2023 introduces the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show®. The theme of this year's show was “SILICA: Agates and Opals and Quartz, Oh My!” This translated into minerals of the quartz family, and there was plenty of fabulous Quartz, Chalcedony, and Agates to be seen. (There wasn't much in the way of Opals though.)

In addition to the main show, I'll post a show report for the Mineral City show and the surrounding area which includes the Just Rocks show and the La Fuente show. I also visited the Tucson Fine Mineral Gallery and will include a post on that.

This page will serve as an index for the main show. I'll be creating posts for the Dealer minerals, display exhibits, and display minerals. Stay tuned and check back for additional links added to this page.

I am pleased to announce that going forward, we'll be using an Instagram gallery to display our photos of our news and show reports. This will be easier for us to manage and allow the photos to be shared with a much broader audience.