Gem show touts plenty of great finds

The Cobb County Civic Center rocks this weekend.

No amps or wailing guitars. We’re talking rocks of the literal kind. And gems, jewelry, minerals, crystals and fossils. They can all be found at the Cobb County Gem and Mineral Society's 25th Annual Gem, Mineral and Jewelry Show.

Jim Haege, the group’s president, promises a collection of approximately 40 dealers specializing in all of the above. A shimmering gemstone necklace may grab your eye one minute, a dinosaur skeleton the next.

Those with a soft spot for jewelry will find the kind of high-end pieces you’d come across in a jewelry store, some with price tags of $5,000 or more. But those with smaller piggy banks can put their allowances to use, too. Necklaces featuring carved stones can be had for $3 a pop.

The same goes for fossils and prehistoric skeletons. Depending on the size, rarity and articulation, Haege says he’s seen dinosaur skeletons with price tags ranging from $3,000 to $50,000. One year, he says, a complete bear skeleton direct from the ice age demanded $5,000. Yet those with a serious budding interest or a serious sense of humor can score a hunk of 1.9-million-year-old petrified turtle poo for $3.

But not all of the eye candy and action takes place on the dealer’s room floor.

A back room lit only by black light houses ultraviolet minerals. Some rocks, like those from a former zinc mine in New Jersey, contain minerals that fluoresce bright green and orange. Pretty spectacular stuff, Haege says.

Another back room hosts talks on minerals, demonstrations on fastening and cutting stones and more. Home-schooled students and anyone else interested can attend classes about topics including mineral identification.

Adding to the educational atmosphere will be a variety of displays. Members of the Cobb County Gem and Mineral Society who wish to show off their stuff are given display case real estate. They’ll be featuring rocks from their collection or jewelry they’ve cut from the club’s workshop.

All that rock and no need for earplugs.

“It’s a mobile museum that changes every year,” Haege says. “You don’t know what you might see and what you might want to go home with.”

Cobb County Gem and Mineral Society's 25th Annual Gem, Mineral and Jewelry Show