Crystals, not cutting rough
Mineral specimens.
Pieces kept for what they are rather than for what they would cut into — form, termination, matrix and where they came from. Any repair or stabilisation is stated on the listing.
How we describe a specimen
Repair is disclosed, always
A re-attached termination, a glued matrix, a stabilised fracture, or a plate assembled from pieces that did not grow together. All of it is normal in the mineral trade and none of it is a problem once it is said. We say it.
Locality where we can stand behind it
A specimen's locality is a large part of what it is worth, which is exactly why it gets repeated hopefully up a supply chain. Where we know it, we say how we know it. Where we do not, we say that instead.
Photographed from several sides
A crystal has a back, and the back is where the damage is. Every specimen is shown from more than one angle, and contact points and old breaks are photographed rather than turned away from.
No specimens in stock at the moment.
They come in irregularly — a good crystal is usually found by somebody who was looking for cutting rough and recognised that it was worth more left alone.
Rough and parcels are the closest thing we have in stock today.
What a specimen is, and is not
A specimen is a crystal kept for its own sake. What decides its value is the shape it grew in — the sharpness of its faces, whether the termination is complete, how it sits on its matrix, and how good an example of that mineral from that place it is.
That makes it the opposite of cutting rough in one important way. Rough is worth what a cutter can get out of it, so a piece is improved by being cut. A specimen is worth what it is, so cutting one destroys the value rather than realising it. The two are priced on different questions entirely, which is why they are on different pages.
If you want material to cut, rough and parcels is the page you want. If you want a stone finished and ready to set, start at the collection.