We are regularly asked by new collectors for advice on what and how to collect. At the same time, we frequently visit many established collections and see what specimens people have actually brought together. This gave us the idea for writing an article describing the main collecting styles, both as a guide for novice collectors and also for any old-hands who wish to try something new.

First and foremost, however, it is vital to stress that collecting is a highly personal pastime, and a theme appealing to one person will not appeal to another. It is therefore impossible to be presciptive about what it is best to collect as this is very much down to individual preference, and of course, there is no right or wrong way to go about accumulating a collection. Each and every collector will have a personal preference, based on their interests, for example, because they have a particular association with a specific mineral kind, or because they like a particular aesthetic feature such as colour, texture or shape.

Of all the different collection types, the most common we find are thosed based on a particular mineral class. Sulphides and Carbonates appear to be especially popular, possibly because of the well formed crystal structures of the former and the variety of colours and forms of the latter. Next in popularity come individual mineral species such as Barite, Calcite or Quartz. The attraction lies in different colours and crystal forms. Collections focussing on Fluorite seem to be unrivalled in these respects due to the immense variety of colours, crystal forms and sizes of this hugely variable mineral.

Most new collectors appear to begin by exploring single mineral classes or individual mineral species, although many become so absorbed that they never venture to collect anything else. Increasing specialisation tends to lead to collections based on a single class or species from the most famous or rare locations. A reverse of this style is to take a particular location and try to obtain all the mineral species from the area. Good examples include Leadhills or Broken Hill, etc. Where several mines occur in an area, for example Weardale, collectors may try to obtain specimens from each. Thus we see collections based on all the key mines in a region. Some collectors go to extremes, a bit nutty in our opinion, and will focus on a single vein or pocket within a single mine. We know a guy who collects copper minerals from the Knipps Skol lode in the Falun Mine, Sweden.

Many collectors base their interest on a single physical or chemical property of minerals. The most popular is fluorescence. Whilst commonly dull, many species take on fantastic colours in UV light, making them highly attractive collection pieces. Others prefer radioactive minerals, whilst others still, will only collect individual crystal classes, such as minerals in the cubic system, or those that appear in a particular habit such as botryoidal, fibrous or dendritic.

Two other collection themes deserve attention. In the first group collectors focus on minerals of a particualr size. Most popular amongst these are micromounts which are collected for their beautiful aesthetics when magnified. The also have the added benefits of being easy to store and cheap to buy. The other group includes systematic collectors who try to gather specimens of all the recognised mineral species. The fun is in trying to find those highly elusive minerals, usually tracking them from dealers or friends by word of mouth. The down side is that some specimens are liitle more than grains in the bottom of a glass tube.

We hope that by writing this article we have given a flavour of the different collecting themes, including their individual pros and cons. Ultimately the decision is down to individual preference and interest. Even if starting out broad, most enthusasts wil eventually come to specialise in some way as the world of mineralogy is so vast and varied. No one can possibly hope to collect everything.