Minerals.net

The NJ Gem and Mineral Show has been renamed this year from its former title, with "New York" being dropped from its name. Although it does attract people from nearby New York, (such as myself), it is, after all, in New Jersey. Many locals call it the "Edison Show" after its location in Edison, New Jersey.

This show is now the largest gem show on the East Coast, and there was an impressive attendance during my visit on Sunday. The focus of the show is broad, with a balance of mineral, gem, jewelry, and fossil dealers. There was a healthy presence of some important mineral dealers that had both new interesting material.

A very impressive fluorescent mineral display was set up in the Junior Ballroom. There were ten display cases of fluorescent minerals, with UV lights above each. The exhibit was put together by the Franklin Mineral Museum as well as by fluorescent collectors such as Steven Kuitems and Richard Bostwick.

One of the main attractions of the show was “Titanoboa: Monster Snake", a 48-foot long life-like model of the largest fossil snake ever found. It was presented in the process of swallowing an adult crocodile, which was likely one its primary food choices. The exhibit belongs to the Smithsonian Institution, and was previously seen at the Florida Museum of Natural History. After the show ended, it was shipped to the British Museum in London for further exhibition.

A nice surprise at the show this year was Avant Mining, run by James Zigras with a full room of large and beautiful Quartz crystals from his new and productive Quartz mine, which he aptly named the Zigras Mine, in Garland Co., Arkansas. Large individual crystals and impressive Quartz clusters, all recently mined, could be seen in this room.

Amanda Adkins, once a star in the TV Series Prospectors, now runs a company called Prospectors USA Mined Gem and Minerals with her partner Ryan Brimley. They had some interesting material as usual, but some unusual and complex Pyrite crystal clusters from Texas (from the DFW metro area) stood out as very interesting. Alan Benson from Alan's Quality Minerals had a large lot of newly mined Fluorite cubes, many of them with Quartz, from the Diana Maria Mine. (See our Tucson show reports for more information about this locality.)

This year, Shannon & Sons Minerals was back, with their very large booth that included many rare species. They had a new find of light yellow, transparent yellow Calcite crystal clusters with complex crystal growths from Mina Rey y Reina, Charcas, San Luis Potosi, Mexico. While walking through the show, I came across a very interesting greenish banded Jasper labelled as "Swamp Bogwood" at the JH Stone Galleria booth. I have never seen this material before, but these nice patterned slabs were unique and affordable, and were labelled as coming from McDermitt area in Oregon.

New Era Gems had a large selection of a new type of "Blue Cap" Tourmaline from Tanzania. The "Blue Caps" are part of multicolored crystals with white and black color zones below the blue caps. These are quite different the traditional California Blue Cap Tourmalines that we are more accustomed to. New Era Gems also has a whole flat of Cat's Eye Tourmaline cabochons. These are rarely encountered, and seeing an entire flat of all different colors was quite interesting.

Khyber Gem Stone, a dealer specializing in minerals from Pakistan and Afghanistan, had a new find of Ruby crystals, bright red in color, in a contrasting marble matrix, from Gilgit, Pakistan. This locality has been producing gem minerals such as Aquamarine for some time, but this is a totally new discovery. The prices were remarkably affordable, and I couldn't resist picking up a piece for myself.

Ziga Mineral had a flat of red Calcite, from a new find in Brookville, Indiana. At the western wall of the convention center, several tables were set up by TJ's Rocks, featuring some very large Selenite Crystals that were very typically shaped in flattened, transparent, colorless crystals. These were from the otherwise unknown locality of the San Rafael Swell, near Green River, Utah.

As I was completing my rounds on the show floor, I encountered Bryan Major of Ultra-Rocks, who always has some new finds that he digs and discovers, year after year. This year was no exception, and Bryan had some large Amethyst crystals from Union Co., South Carolina from a newly discovered and very productive location. Bryan is yet to name the mine, and will be taking to social media to have some of his online followers come up with a name.