Amethyst Galleries' Mineral Gallery

Amethyst Galleries' Mineral Gallery
"The First Internet Rock Shop!"

What is a mineral? A mineral is (generally) an inorganic, naturally occurring, organized crystalline structure composed of a single chemical compound or element.

What is a rock? A rock is (generally) a natural solid composed of multiple crystals of one or more minerals. Although many rocks contain visible crystals of individual minerals, a rock itself does not have an overall crystalline structure.

Mineral crystals form because their component chemicals tend to aggregate together in certain specific arrangements dictated by the shapes and components of the molecules involved (and sometimes varying with temperature and pressure). These arrangements result in the crystal forms described in the physical characteristics pages. Often, minerals are formed as a solution changes in some way which allows or forces the component mineral(s) to solidify. This change may be temperature, pressure, chemistry, or concentration, and the solution may be aqueous or a magma (or even a gas, as sulfur crystals may condense from vapors emitted by a volcanic fumerol, and snowflakes precipitate from air). A slow solidification or precipitation supports the growth of larger crystals. Note that this process is responsible for much of the mineral segregation that gives us ores, as well as all of the gemstones we admire. Crystals may be too small to see, as in agate, or incredibly large - see our Gypsum page for an astounding example. Of course, not all solids are crystalline. Very rapid cooling of a molten compound can result in a glass, where the individual molecules have random orientations, not orderly such as in a crystal.

Amethyst Galleries' Mineral Gallery describes over 600 mineral species (and varieties) and more than 5000 specimens (see our new specimens last updated 02-Jan-2009, and What's New last updated 23-Dec-2008), together with several ways of accessing these descriptions. The descriptions include searchable mineralogical data, plus other information of interest to students and rock hounds. This site displays thousands of images of previously sold mineral specimens as a service to rockhounds, students and educators (not merely minerals currently for sale). We were the first rock shop on the Internet, going live (with a numeric IP) in the fall of 1994, and under the domain galleries.com in the spring of 1995.

We apologize if any of the ads displayed on our site seem inappropriate. While most are properly related to gemstones, minerals, and rocks, we can't control which keywords the advertisers target, plus this site is very popular (nearly 300,000 visitors per month) and is chosen by hundreds of advertisers who seek customers such as yourself. Feel free to give Google feedback via the "Feedback - Ads by Google" link at the bottom of many of their ads. Note that the ads and menus will not display in printed pages.

Our favorite specimens are marked with this symbol, and those that are still available for purchase are listed on our Favorites Page. Check out our new Minerals By Price pages, where you can easily find minerals under $10, between $10 and $20, or even over $1000!

We are having an Inventory Clearance Sale! Select specimens are from 10% to 50% or more off. See the By Name lists, and click on the Sale! links to jump to the first "on sale" specimen for each mineral. Or, see our By_Discount page which provides direct links to specimens at a given discount - your index to great bargains.

We accept credit cards using secure PayPal PayFlow Link Services. We also accept payment via traditional PayPal payments to coveysd@galleries.com. If you have any questions, problems, or comments, please e-mail them to coveysd@galleries.com.

We have earned the following certificates:

	SSL Certificates

To purchase our specimens, select a mineral using any of the indexes, and then choose the Specimens link (or use the specimens shortcut on the By_Name index). This will usually display several available specimens, some of which may be marked Sold or Sale Pending, but others will have an Order link which will add that specimen to your shopping cart. You may Cancel or Complete your order then, or after further browsing. Generally, you will return here to review your order (if any), and from there you will Cancel or Complete it. Shipping is normally the next business day (with 3 to 5 days delivery time for most North America destinations). For more information (including our address), see the page How to Buy From Us.

Do you have comments, suggestions, or requests about this service? Please provide us with feedback; we would appreciate it!
Our phone number is (904)662-0520. You may also contact us by e-mail as follows:

specimens or sales info: doris@galleries.com
comments for the webmaster: coveysd@galleries.com

A few other links of interest:

See our Privacy, Security, Honesty, and Accuracy policies.
To see the entire list of the mineral species currently in our database, see this version of Minerals by Name (about 600 mineral species).
To learn more about this service, check out our About page!
To learn a little about our company, see the Amethyst Galleries page, and the History page.
To learn who is responsible for the Mineral Gallery, see our credits page, which includes the owners:: Doris Covey who runs AGI including processing orders and shipping, and; Stephen Covey who manages the website while selling homes and writing Science Fiction
See this list of our favorite rock, mineral and gem books.
Here is our List of Galleries: Minerals (that's this page); Gifts (including bookends made from agate and other minerals)