What’s with the small picture of the rock and dollar bill or pencil?
Every specimen is photographed with a dollar bill (or possibly a coin) to show relative size of a specimen. Even though measurements are given for each they donut really convey the true size (and are sometimes approximated). Everyone knows how big a dollar is...

The “dollar bill” images sometimes appear a different color than the larger images?
We often use these “sizing images” to reset the brain of the camera when switching between “time exposure” and “natural light”. Digital cameras remember the white balance from the last picture for the next picture, and can mess up the colors in a FL picture if it is not reset before moving to time exposures. The “sizing picture” is used to do this reset, thus the color shift.

Are the colors of your FL rocks the true colors????
We pride ourselves in presenting the truest image we can. Sometimes the camera simply insists on lying - but we’ll tell you if it is. We never retouch the colors of our photos.

I saw something I really liked but when I tried to order it you said it was already sold???
We do our best to update the web with the latest status of every specimen, but alas, sometimes we fail. But - make sure you refresh the index pages to get the latest status of the specimens, they change regularly, and your computer may be “caching” (a techie term for remembering the page and not reloading a fresh one each time you visit). Cache is nice, but can mislead you - hit the reload on your browser before ordering.

What is Fullwave? (longwave, shortwave, midwave)?
Each type of lamp peaks at a different wavelength (measured in nanometers). All the typical UV lamps are based on mercury vapor emissions, which have very specific wavelength peaks. The low pressure SW lamps have a major peak at 253.652 nm (254nm). Increasing the pressure emphasizes the longer wavelength peaks. There is a major longwave peak at 365.016 nm seen in mercury vapor lamps, but more efficient fluorescent lamps add a phosphor for increased output. You may find phosphors that peak at 352, but also at 358, 362, etc. but the curve is fairly broad and still contains the 365 nm peak. The MW lamps use a different phosphor excited by the 254 nm energy, but there are weaker mercury emission lines at 296 nm and clustered at 312-313. The most commonly used “peak numbers” for SW, MW and LW, are 254, 312, and 365 nm.

Fullwave (in MinerShop terminology) means the specimen is lit by at least two wavelengths (SW + LW) or all three wavelengths at once (this requires three bulbs - one for each wavelength). Midwave is often omitted as the resulting FL is not different from the combination seen from the other two (LW/SW) - only when a specimen reacts specifically to MW is the special MW light used.

What is “Chameleon Sodalite”?
We made that name up! See the sodalite section for a complete explanation (and may the mineral gods forgive me).

I’m looking for a square (triangular, round, pyramid, 23 colors, 62 pound) specimen - do you have one?
We have an extensive inventory. If you can’t find what you are looking for just ask. If we can meet your needs we’ll let you know. (But please, don’t ask for a 3-color, 12” sodalite under $10.00)!

Do you sell to resellers?
If you are a reseller and are active on the Internet (i.e. - have a web site) - or - you own a rockshop we would be happy to discuss marketing our Greenland Minerals. Send us an email.