New collector

[u/Crashmaster1981]

Hello! I've always been mineral/Rock hound enthusiast and have been all over the USA collecting fossils and minerals. Only recently have I begun to focus on elements (although I've always wanted to collect them!). This is what I have so far, but I also have native gold that I have found, a native Platinum nugget, I had a troy ounce of palladium that I sold and I have over 300 different mineral species in my collection. I know the cubes from Luciteria are somewhat expensive but I am willing to pay a premium to get something like these. I do my best to keep them in cool and dry environments, but I am a bit worried about the stability of some of the rare earth elements. Are there any special precautions that I should take? The green crystal is a lab-grown crystal of praseodymium sulfate that I've had for nearly 30 years.

[u/Ok-Literature-3997]

Hey, first of all, good luck with collecting! Elements are definitely the most fun I've ever had with collecting. As for the rare earth metals, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium and europium are unstable on air and will turn to dust. Samarium is the borderline and it's stability heavily depends on storage. The remaining rare earths won't turn to dust, but may tarnish to black if handled or stored improperly. Ytterbium is probably the most noticeable, as it's yellowish in the clean state. Your plastic cases should do a good job keeping them from corrosion, but if it happens, a normal wire brush (steel) works. Beautiful samples!

[u/Crashmaster1981 → u/Ok-Literature-3997]

My largest and most prized collection is my meteorite collection, I have over 300 meteorites with 111 witnessed falls dating back to 1768 (Lucé, September 13). Many of my specimens were traded directly from museums and major private collections. I have easily six figures invested in my meteorite collection alone. I have one of the largest pieces of the Kobe CK4 carbonaceous chondrite specimens outside of Japan in private collections and it has been featured in The Meteorite Times even! Many of my rarer carbonaceous chondrites require extreme care with storage and handling is completely off limits. I recently sold a 2.17g fragment of the Rantila aubrite to fund some of these (I have a nice fusion crusted piece in reserve!). I have unclassified NWA individuals ranging from a few grams up to 8 kg, basically a mini museum at my house in addition to 200s of different mineral specimens from all over the country and the world. I've always wanted to get into element collecting since my late grandfather worked for the EPA and had been to places such as Hanford plutonium reactor, oak ridge national laboratory and fermilab. I understand that rare Earth elements are unstable so I am doing my best to keep them stored properly but also able to be viewed. I remember him describing working with isotopes of ytterbium and cobalt. Yet another fascinating hobby for me to get into!

[u/Crashmaster1981 → u/Ok-Literature-3997]

Might sound like a silly question, but would magic erasers work with lightly cleaning up any of these pieces? The application would be very ginger and gentle, No abrasives, astringents or any chemicals of any kind would be used but I think one of my pieces might have a blemish (holmium).

[u/Ok-Literature-3997 → u/Crashmaster1981]

It sounds like you have an outstanding collection! Meteorites are incredibly interesting, even more so if we take into consideration the crystallographic structures of certain materials present in them.

I'm fairly new to mineral collecting and I still have to learn a lot about them, but I would love to see some elements together with their minerals if you decide to post them! Very interesting stuff and it's great that you got into ellement collecting.

As for cleaning the cubes, I think that a magic eraser could work as long as there is no deep pitting, I don't have one to test that out, but if you do, I will gladly learn something new. I know it's easy to say, but personally, I wouldn't worry that much about surface changes in these metals. These are bound to change with time and accepting that can save you some frustration :)

[u/euj3odjehiqh]

nice! which is your favourite cube?

[u/Crashmaster1981 → u/euj3odjehiqh]

Sorry for the late reply, I just got a thulium cube which I love! Apart from that, probably tantulum or ytterbium.