Catalog Search Guide

You can search our catalog using different mineral attributes. For example, you can search by color such as green, yellow or purple, or by chemical elements such as uranium, calcium or iron, or by mineral groups such as phosphate, silicate or carbonate. You can also filter by crystal habit like crystal, geode or crystal on matrix, by specimen size such as thumbnail, small, medium or cabinet, and by features such as radioactive or fluorescent minerals.

Greece

Greece is one of Europe's most mineralogically diverse countries, its geology shaped by the Attic-Cycladic metamorphic complex, extensional detachment faults, and volcanic and ophiolitic terrains that together host an extraordinary range of ore deposits and crystal-lined pockets. The undisputed capital of Greek mineralogy is the Lavrion (Laurion) mining district in Attica, an ancient silver-lead-zinc field exploited since the Bronze Age and famed for financing Classical Athens. Lavrion hosts Kamariza, Hilarion Mine, Christiana Mine, Serpieri Mine, and the Sounion mines, which have collectively yielded a staggering array of secondary minerals including smithsonite, azurite, cerussite, adamite, aurichalcite, carminite, fluorite and dozens of type-locality species such as tsumcorite-group phases; indeed the region is on the UNESCO Tentative List and its subsoil is reported to contain over 265 mineral species, roughly 6.8% of all known minerals worldwide. Beyond Attica, Greek collectors and dealers prize material from Serifos Island, celebrated worldwide for gemmy green prase quartz with amethyst scepters at Avessalos, along with ilvaite, andradite garnet, hematite and fluorite hosted in a world-class hedenbergitic skarn. The Chalkidiki district in Macedonia, particularly the Stratoni and Olympiada carbonate-replacement deposits, produces vivid rhodochrosite, large rhodonite, calcite and pyrite crystals reaching an exceptional 50 cm in size. Thassos Island is notable for kyanite, viridine-variety andalusite, and Mn-rich zoisite and clinozoisite at Trikorfo, while Naxos is famous for its ancient emery deposits alongside prized marble, and Samothraki and Evia islands produce fine alpine-type quartz, morion, beryl, garnet and vesuvianite. The Othrys and Vermion ophiolite belts have even yielded rare new species like tsikourasite, grammatikopoulosite and theophrastite, found nowhere else on Earth. For collectors, Greece offers a rare combination of historical gravitas and genuine mineralogical rarity: specimens from Lavrion carry the weight of millennia of mining history stretching back to the silver that armed the Athenian navy, while Serifos and Chalkidiki deliver aesthetic, display-quality crystals sought after in international collections. With production from Lavrion now effectively frozen following its 2023 designation as a UNESCO Geopark, existing specimens of Greek smithsonite, azurite, adamite and prase quartz have become increasingly scarce and collectible, making authentic pieces highly desirable additions to any systematic or aesthetic mineral collection.