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haben Sie unverändert im Galenit-Portrait stehen, daher möchte ich nochmal nachfragen ob wir hier Handlungsbedarf haben.?Hi Stefan
nein, es gibt keinen Handlungsbedarf. Bitte, lasss die Bilder und den Text stehen. Wir müssen keine Vorreite für eine unausgegorene Geschichte sein; solange noch zahlreiche dieser hohlen Kristalle bei mindat und bei Lavinsky in der data base und im Verkauf stehen, ist das Thema nicht ausgestanden.
Die ellenlange Diskussion bei mindat wird aus einer Mischung aus Gegnern und Befürwortern geführt. Es gibt bisher keinen authentischen, nachweisbaren Vorgang (Verfahren, Prozess), welcher diese hohlen Kristallen erzeugt; diese sind i.ü. keine Skelette, sondern aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach durch Ätzung entstandene Gebilde. Ob natürlich oder durch Menschenhand - das ist bisher ungeklärt.
Abgesehen von einem sich selbst vermarktenden polnischen MIneralienhändler hat bisher kein renommierter Fachmann oder Sammler behauptet, alle diese Kristalle seien "Fakes".
Es ist bekannt und Tatsache, dass es in Madan viele Skelett-Galenite gibt. Echte natürlich. Ob diese hier im Lexikon abgebildeten echt, unecht oder "echt mit Nachhilfe" sind, bleibt bisher offen. Selbst Jolyon räumt ein, dass die hier abgebildeten (identisch mit denen in mindat) echt sein können.
Ich füge die wichtigsten Auszüge der Kommentare aus 3 Jahren der bekanntesten Fachleute und renommiertesten Sammler der Mineralienszene bei; ein genaues Bild des Status Quo kann sich jeder machen, wenn er die Diskussion in mindat (11 Seiten mit ca. 120 Beiträgen) genau studiert.
Gruß
Peter
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Zitate....There are a lot of possibilities. But like the new spectacular wire silvers from Germany, it is not easy to prove that they are definitely fakes. I for myself, would not want one in my collection except as a joke to show friends. For specimens like this shown on Mindat, at the very least there should be inserted a comment that some knowledgeable people suggest that you take into consideration that they might be fakes at least until such time that they can definitely be proved to be natural.
Rock Currier
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Having spent quite some time on this during the Munich show, I have to say I am changing my view now, and I'm more convinced now that they are genuinely natural phenomena. They are certainly worthy of some decent research however to identify the method of formation, because they're unusual!
I also spoke to one of the main bulgarian dealers who handles these things, who wants to send photos that will help convince people they are natural. I also took some photos myself of galenas at the show, on some of the pieces normal galena shows some of the strange stepped patterns we saw in the skeletal cubes and we thought might be because of abrasion loosening particles along lines of cleavage. On closer examination it looks very much more like a growth feature (or an etching/recrystallization feature) than anything physical.
So... if you were about to throw out your skeletal galenas in disgust, wait a moment, they're probably fine after all!
Jolyon
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I know nobody with a sandblasting machine, but I have several skelettal galenas in my private collection. And most of these specimens consist of several attached skelettal crystals, you can never cast by sandblasting. All the edges of my specimens do not have round faces, but stepped faces, which you also can never cast by sandblasting in my opinion.
And to the end, there are small tiny quartz crstals on some of these edges, which you destroy immediately by sandblasting.
To make a long story short - these facts convince me so far, that at least my skelettal galenas are not man made.
Best regards,
Marcus Grossmann
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I would consider this very interesting although i am still convinced (and after Jols comments much more) that these Madan specs are natural.
Roger Lang
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That's one of the reasons I was first suspicious too. But Jolyon has come up with a possible mechanism to explain it: Imagine a hopper-faced galena that changed composition as it grew, with the older growth (the center of the crystal) being less resistant to dissolution than the younger growth (the skeletal edges). This might be theoretically possible, but personally I'm still skeptical. I'll believe in the natural origin when I see one that has its "tunnel" entrances blocked by quartz or other minerals making it difficult to point a microabrasive pen through it, or a specimen with younger and softer minerals growing in the cavities, but I'm trying to keep an open mind (although a friend told me our brains will fall out if our minds are too open).

Alfredo Petrov
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All I have heard from Bulgarian academia is that these galenas are OK and one chapter of the thesis deals with it.
Stuart Mills
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agree with Stuart. As well as many russians who saw these samples in person - we are pretty sure they are true.
I discussed this with many bulgarians at the show whom (this is important) were not so friendly towards Ivan Pojarevski who was the only dealer to sell these so their
opinion is certainly not prejudiced. Nevertheless, they were sure these are not fakes though the real locality of these samples was a real enigma for them either.
Yesterday we looked at these again with Igor Pekov and he is sure they are natural either.
Weird, unusual and (often) very aesthetic doesn't necessarily mean a fake.
Also I don't see any direct relation between the existence of something mineralogically interesting and the absence (maybe temporary) of its description in the scientific litterature. Zvyagintsevite at Kondyor is unique, not really described so far but it's not a fake (even if Pavel successfully built one in his lab!).
Anatoly Kasatkin (Russia)
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I recently photographed a galena from Madan that had many small cavities and uploaded two photos. The small cavities in the galena are definitely not man-made as illustrated by the undercut in one cavity that was exposed when the galena crystal cleaved.
These small cavities are the precursor to more elaborate dissolution that would lead to natural skeletal galena crystals. I do not doubt the man-made conclusion for the large skeletal cubes. But clearly there is a natural process working here.
John Betts
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