Fool's Gold, and other pretty frauds. Part One.

Rock hunting, like so many other endeavors, is a kind of treasure hunt.  Whether we're looking for amethyst crystals or agate nodules or veins of serpentine or boulders of jade, we always head out with the hope of striking it rich.  That hope may be very faint, and we may have other objectives as well, such as seeing some great scenery or just enjoying the outdoors with friends, but the hope is still there.

Most of the time we don't hit that big score.  We come home tired and happy with whatever it was we did find, or we console ourselves on not finding anything this time but next time we certainly will.  Sometimes, of course, we do find something really fantastic, like that big brick of agate-veined red jasper I dug out of the ground at Brenda, Arizona or this agate nodule my husband picked up at Saddle Mountain, Arizona.  We were leaving the site, turning onto the road to head home, and he saw it out the truck window.  It was just perched on the top of the gravel heaped up by the road grader.

And yes, that's in inches.  It's almost 8 inches (20 cm) long and weighs well over 2 pounds.  The outer part is banded agate with a solid, not hollow, crystal center.

When we find it ourselves, we pretty much know it's the real thing, even if we don't know what real thing it is! 

Iron pyrite, commonly called fool's gold, is just one of the many natural "fakes" we may find, and probably the best-known.  It's not gold, of course, though it's metallic and shiny and kind of golden in color.  Mother Nature has fooled a lot of fools into thinking they'd scooped up a fortune when all they really had was a scoop of iron sulfide, also known as pyrite.  Some of those fools have then turned the trick on others, or at least tried to.

That's not to say iron pyrite is without value just because it's not gold.  Did you know marcasite jewelry, popular especially during the Victorian era but still made today, uses faceted iron pyrite for its glitter?  Although there is a mineral called marcasite that is also an iron sulfide like pyrite, its crystal structure makes it unsuitable for faceting.  So in steps iron pyrite, fool's gold, to fool us once again!

Pyrite itself, of course, can be pretty enough on its own to be collectible.  This is a fist-sized chunk I purchased for an absurdly small sum at one of the Quartzsite shows several years ago. 
 

This smaller piece -- it's about the size of a U.S. quarter -- is from a bag of rocks I purchased at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry on a school field trip when I was in fifth grade.  (Yes, I'm a hoarder.  Yes, I really do remember buying that bag of rocks on our fifth grade field trip.)

The location of Navajún, Spain, produces exquisite cubic crystals of iron pyrite.  The specimen pictured below was a gift to me from Rob, the son-in-law of my dear friends Jan and Alida from the Netherlands.  The pyrite crystals from Navajún are so bright and shiny that you can easily see the wood grain of my table reflected in the lower face of the leftmost crystal in this sample.  These crystals have not been polished in any way; they're still in the matrix in which they formed.

Pyrite occurs with other minerals.  It's what gives this brilliant blue lapis lazuli its glitter.

But iron pyrite still isn't gold.  When it's identified correctly and used correctly, collected and bought and sold as what it really is, it's not a fake and it's not a fraud.  The people who claim it's something else are the fakes and frauds.  Sadly, there are a lot of those people in the rock/gem/mineral businesses.  Even though most of us are up front and honest about what we do, there are enough bad eggs out there to give us all a bad name.

What can you do to protect yourself against fakes and frauds?  The best way is to educate yourself.  You'll not only learn which rocks and minerals are the real thing, but you'll also learn which people to trust and which not to.

Fool's gold is one of those frauds most of us encountered at a very young age, and it's been around a lot longer than all of us.  There are new frauds, new fakes, new scams cropping up just about every day.  Some of them are really almost laughable, but others are very pretty and like iron pyrite need to be appreciated for what they are rather than for what someone is trying to make them be.

Why you should go to the Mesa show

If you've come to my blog by way of my Really Neat Rocks! book, you may already know that I like to include my personal experiences when writing about rocks.  And if you arrived here via a face to face chat at an art show, then you know I love to talk about the stones, how I acquired them, where they come from, and so on. 

One of the things I plan to do with this blog is include more of those tales, to give the background not only of some of the individual pieces I've acquired, but additional information on the minerals, locations, and techniques involved.

Because the Mesa Flagg Gem and Mineral Show is just a couple of weeks away, and because it's one of my favorite shows, I thought I'd give an expanded portrait of this event.

Please note that the 2015 show is a week later than usual because of the New Year's holiday.  Usually the Flagg show is the first full week-end in January, but because New Year's Day falls on Thursday -- the set-up day for the show -- the event is scheduled for January 9-11, 2015, Friday through Sunday, 9:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m.

The main attractions of course are that it's free and it's conveniently located for those in the greater Phoenix metro area.  Free parking, free admission, and it's located at Mesa Community College on Dobson Road immediately off U.S. 60.  For anyone who's ever gotten lost trying to find a rock hounding location, "easy to find" is a big plus!

As I wrote in the book, the Tucson experience can be overwhelming for anyone not really prepared for it, and Quartzsite is a rather longish drive from just about anywhere in the state.  But Mesa offers a very comfortable and casual venue for anyone to be introduced to the rock, gem, mineral, and related arts and hobbies.

Mesa Flagg Gem & Mineral Show, January 2014.

 

Bring the kids, the grandkids, even the dog!  All are welcome.  In fact, this is one of the few shows I've been to where there are lots of activities specifically for youngsters, aimed at getting them interested in a hobby that sometimes seems exclusively for old folks.

 

Let's face it -- Most kids like rocks.  If you have or had kids, you know they're always finding neat rocks, whether fossils or crystals or something they see a picture in or whatever.  And most of the time they're told, "Leave it alone.  It's a rock.  It's dirty.  It's nothing.  Put it down right now!"  C'mon, admit it.  You've said it . . . or you've heard it.

 

But rocks are part of our world, and a child's curiosity and interest should be nurtured and encouraged, not squelched.  The Mesa Flagg Gem & Mineral Show is just the place to take them.  They'll see lots of rocks, they'll have the opportunity to look and touch and collect and buy.  They'll also be able to buy books and magazines about geology and mineral science.  What better way to encourage a reluctant reader to read than by giving him or her a book on a subject they're already interested in?  And where might an interest in mineral science further lead?  Why, to math, of course!   Rocks are educational!

 

Rocks and gems aren't age discriminatory either.  This is a hobby the whole family, all ages, can participate in.  Stroll up and down the aisles, chat with some of the sellers, and learn something new every single time.  There will be merchants from around the world, from Arizona and British Columbia, from Arkansas and Afghanistan, from Mexico and China and Thailand and Montana. 

 

Most of all, however, all the oohs and aaaahs and wows! are free.

When I exhibit at an art show, I always have a bowl full of miscellaneous tumbled stones that I cally freebies.  They're free to children "of all ages," and most of the takers are children in the upper end of the "all ages" range.  I love watching adults give in to their inner child as they sift through the stones searching for one special stone.  Even more, though I love watching the children.  So many of them just can't decide which rock to take.  They like them all!  Even when I tell their parents that I have plenty of rocks and the kids can have more than one if they like, most of the time the parents say no, just one is plenty.

Excuse me, but "one rock" is not plenty!

That's why I often pause along my own stroll through the Mesa show just to watch kids with their parents and/or grandparents who are actively encouraging a budding interest in rocks. 

For the experienced rockhound, there are all kinds of neat rocks to see and to buy, without all the hassle and stress of Tucson.  Don't get me wrong; Tucson is unlike any other congregation of rock and mineral enthusiasts in the world.  But it's so huge that it can be just too much to handle.  Mesa is like a mini Tucson, with a little bit of everything that you'll find at the bigger show.

And you may find some remarkable bargains, too.

 

 Mexican Crazy Lace Agate purchased at Mesa Flagg Gem & Mineral Show.

 

 

It's fun and it's free, and if you're interested but don't know if you want to get more interested, check it out.  I might even see you there.