Agate

[ToddsPoint]

I found this rock at the river. It has an interesting faceted face. I cut it in half and discovered some nice pink agate. Pink agate? I’ve never seen it before. A surprise for central IL. I’ll see if I can make a cabochon out of it.

 

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[tamrock]

That's a one in a million find within the whole of the Midwest. It would certainly make a very beautiful and unique cabochon.

 

[Oldrvrrat57]

I've picked up thousands of rocks and have never seen pink agate here in Illinois!

 

[SD51]

Beautiful specimen Gary, anxious to see the cab!

 

[fuss]

The cut pieces look a lot like Rhodocrosite.

 

[antmike915]

Very nice 👌

 

[newnan man]

That is a great looking piece of agate.

 

[ToddsPoint]

The glacier was like a bulldozer pushing a huge amount of rock. The “bulldozer” just happened to stop in my neighborhood and left me a lot of rock from up north to look at. Tamrock was probably right. A one in a million and I’ll never find another.

 

[ToddsPoint]

The cut pieces look a lot like Rhodocrosite.

This is a piece of rhodocrosite from the web. My specimen does indeed have a similar look. I visited a rhodocrosite mine in CO once. They found a huge specimen and Coors bought it from them and donated it to the museum in Denver.

 

[ToddsPoint]

I decided on a 25X18. I’ve got a start on it.

 

[ToddsPoint]

I decided to flip it over from the above pic. I think the color will change as I take it thinner. It’s not consistent through and through. I’m afraid I’m going to lose some of the pink.

 

[LandSeig]

Very nice! Please keep us updated.

 

[SD51]

That's a beauty Gary!

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

Beautiful! My wife thinks I’m crazy because I wonder around picking up rocks. I probably am.

 

[ToddsPoint]

Beautiful specimen Gary, anxious to see the cab!

Well, my cabber is in the barn with water lines still drained for winter. I’ll get it going before long.

 

[ToddsPoint]

I polished the original rock I cut a slab from. Cleaned up rough edges but left faceted face.

I dopped the cab I got from it and am ready to polish.

 

[ToddsPoint]

I finished the cab. Not really sure if this is agate or not. It polished up nice. Now to find some more out there.

 

[tamrock]

Beatiful lapidary job and really unique. I don't know if it would be considered an agate either. It looked like a pretty hard stone. I looked at various polished stromatilite fossils and they have a wide variety of patterns, but not generally that color. My hunch would be it's some fossilized coral type living organism from and ancient sea that lived many millions of years ago. I'm thinking it be pretty hard to determine where all those rocks in the glacier alluvium originated that got spread all over the upper Midwest. Only the hardest of stones could've survived all that.

 

[ToddsPoint]

There is definitely a potpourri in the glacial till. I find new stuff every time out there. It’s hard enough trying to figure out the igneous and sedimentary rocks and then you throw in all the metamorphic and it gets confusing. It’s both an amateurs dream and nightmare combined.