Richard here from Mineral of the Month Club, with information on our January 2012 featured mineral, Stilbite-Ca from the Jalgaon District, Maharashtra, India. It's always nice to start off the new year with a mineral with lovely, well-formed crystals in interesting habits! We hope our 22 new Platinum members will find something special in this Email. In addition to the lovely, delicate peach-colored Stilbite-Ca you may be used to seeing, we have some pieces in unusual colors, so if you'd like to order a second specimen this month, we'll give you 10% off on the lesser-priced piece.

You might think of wheat sheaf bundles and bow ties when you think of Stilbite-Ca, and you'd be right! The details on Stilbite's unusual way of twinning can be found in the write-up, along with a special section on "How Silicates Shape the Earth's Crust." If you decide to order a Stilbite-Ca specimen, we'll send you the fascinating write-up so you can read up on it.  

And here is a link to our January 2012 Offer sheet, with new lots of minerals we've featured in the past, and some new finds we recently picked out: January 2012 Offer Sheet

We grouped the Stilbite-Ca according to the unique way they crystallize, and their colors, as you can see in the attached photos.

We have the Gold-level Stilbite-Ca available for $26.50. They are about 2" by 1.5" to 2" by 2" and slightly larger, with distinct crystals and the lovely pastel peach color that is typical of Stilbite-Ca

Group 1 Stilbite-Ca have the same lovely pastel pale peachy color as most of the Gold-level pieces, caused by inclusions of iron and manganese, as the write-up explains under "Composition." These are larger than Gold-Level pieces, about 3" by 2" to 4" by 3", and are available for $40, $50, and $60, according to size and crystal arrangement. These have a minor coating of mineral dust on some of the faces, which comes off easily with a soft toothbrush and some hot water. We could have removed it all ourselves, but wanted to leave some of the fun for you. We have about 29 of these.

Group 2 Stilbite-Ca are the pure white, snowy, sparkly, pearly specimens--none of the iron or maganese ions that get trapped in the growing crystals to impart the lovely pale pastel colors usually seen in Stibite-Ca! They range in size from about 3.5" by 2.5" to 4" by 3" and are available for $50, $60, and $70, according to size and crystal arrangement. We have about 23 of these.

Group 3 Stilbite-Ca have the same delicate peach-pink color as Group 1, but are larger and therefore even showier, about 4" by 4" to 5" by 5" and slightly larger, for $100 and $120. And we have a few even larger clusters, 6" to 7" across for $160 and $200, according to size.

Purplish Stilbite-Ca. We also have a few larger clusters shaped rather like cauliflower, with zones of rare, purplish-stilbite, a color not often seen in Stilbite-Ca. These are about 4" by 3" to 5" by 4" and are available for $100, $120, $170, and $200 for the largest. We only have 10 of these.

Indian Geologist's Favorites. We have 7 large, unusual pieces, as seen in the photo, that also display beautifully. They have smaller bundles of bow tie-shaped cluster spread out with areas of purplish-taupe coloring, which adds visual contrast. The photo will give you the best idea of how these particularly unusual clusters look. In size, these are about 5" by 3" to 5" by 5" for $170, and 6" across by 4" high to 7" across by 5" high for $325 and $350.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like us to send you something. As always, we appreciate it if you indicate a second choice, just in case your first choice is already sold out; and if you wish to pass on this month's mineral, please let me know, so that I know you're getting the Email OK. Thanks in advance!

Richard