Using the Search Form
All specimens for sale on the web site are entered into a
database. The search form allows you to specify criterea
to select the specimens you wish to view.
The form has a set of fields for you to fill in. You may fill in one
or more of the fields. If you fill in more than one, then only
specimens satisfying all fields will be returned. (Empty
fields match all specimens).
For the type-in text fields, the value you type in is matched
against the values in the field for each specimen in the database.
Since it's a pattern match, it's ok to type in partial
values. For example, when searching localities, if you simply
enter "China", you'll select all speciments from anywhere in
China. If you type in "Colorado, USA", you'll get all
specimens from the state of Colorado in the United States.
Added
You can limit the search to specimens that were added during
some interval or prior to that interval. For example, selecting
"Before" and "10 Days" will search specimens added prior to the
last 10 days. Selecting "Since" and "10 Days" will search specimens
added during the last 10 days.
Specimen No.
Each specimen has a unique alphanumeric ID, for example,
"CK42", or "URI-01". You can limit the search for specimens whose IDs contain a given
string of characters by specifying it here. You can indicate if
you would like "Partial Matches". For example "K-112" would match
"K-112" and "HECK-112". Or you can uncheck the "Partial Matches"
box to only retrieve exact matches.
Mineral Name/Varietal
Each specimen has a name field. Often the name is just the name
of the primary mineral(s) of the specimen. But in some cases,
there are conventions that can be useful in finding what you are
looking for. For example, all pseudomorph specimens will
the string "after" in their names, so you can find all pseudomorphs
by entering "after" in the Name field. Be aware that the name
field might include variety names ("amethyst", "aquamarine", etc.).
Thus, to be sure of finding all Beryl specimens, select Beryl in the
Mineral field - not in the Name field.
Species
The Species field is different from the Name field, in that it searches
the list of species occurances noted for each specimen. (Not the
species names that happen to be in the specimen name!) It is more
precise than searching for species names in the Name field. For
example, if you search for just "A" in the Name field, you will find
Albites, Amazonites, Azurites, and so on... if you search for
specimens by specifying a Species in the Species
drop-down menu, the only specimens noting a occurance of that species
will be selected. The Species field allows IMA-approved species names,
only. (E.g., you'll find Quartz, but not Amethyst).
Locality
The locality field is populated with locality names. Spellings and the
locality hierarchy are generally as presented in the locality listings
at www.mindat.org.
Of course, you can also search by any part of the locality name,
for example, "Sweet Home Mine" would find all specimens from a
specific mine.
Description
The Description field searches in the specimen descriptions.
Since previous owners are usually named in the description,
you can search for "Arthur Montgomery" to look for specimens
sold by the noted American mineralogist (or perhaps even from
Montgomery's personal collection).
Size
Allows you to search based on the specimen sizes.
Price
By filling in these fields, you can limit the search to a particular
price range. For example, with "Min Price" 1000 and "Max Price" of 2000,
the search will only match specimens in this price range.
Collection
Allows you to constrain the search to specimens formerly in the collection
of one of the listed collectors or institutions.
General Notes
Searches are "bookmarkable". After clicking "Search", and
receiving results, you can bookmark the result page, and
your bookmark will store the search. Remember, revisiting the
bookmark will re-execute the search; it does not store
the search results. If the contents of the database have changed
since the search was originally stored, the results
may change.
