2025 Calendar: Colors of Europe, a 16-month calendar.
Created by: Paul W. Pohway
Edited by: Dave Bunk, Terry Wallace, Gloria Staebler, Corey Neumeier
Illustrations by: Jeff ScovilLászló Kupi
When I started my mineralogical journey, most of the books I had access to were illustrated with photographs of minerals from classic European localities. Looking at these mostly black and white photographs fed my desire to learn not just about the minerals but the localities themselves. Now with modern imagery these specimens are just as exciting if not more so than they were then.
You can’t talk about European minerals without also talking about the rich mining history of the continent. Silver from the Lavrion mines was used to fund the building of the Greek navy, which defeated the Persians at the Battle of Salamis. Although Lavrion is better known for the minerals formed in the ancient slags, today Greek collectors are exploring the ancient workings and finding fine examples of minerals such as the aragonite specimen featured in February 2026. England was known to the Greeks, Phoenicians, and Carthaginians as the “Cassiterides,” or Tin Islands. In the modern era, the iron mines of the Lake District helped England become an industrial powerhouse. This area has produced some of the finest hematite specimens known, as well as exquisite calcites, such as the one pictured on the January 2025 page. Silver from Kongsberg, Norway — a Holy Grail mineral for many collectors — was mined from 1623 to 1958. A fine example of Kongsberg silver is featured in May 2025. The prodigious specimen-producing Erzgebirge region of Germany and Czechia, mined for 800 years, was an important source of silver, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, mercury, and uranium. But collecting in Europe is still going on, as the recently discovered Scottish gold featured in November 2024 and the titanite pictured for February 2025 both attest.
With all the mining that took place, one would think mineral collections proliferated, but that was not the case. As Wilson (1994) has noted, it wasn’t until the 16th century that the seeds of modern collecting germinated. Beginning with cabinets of curiosity, mineral collecting matured through time
to what it is today. Europe has a rich mineralogical heritage that is exemplified by the specimens in this calendar.
The calendar is published by Lithographie, LLC in cooperation with Denver Area Gem & Mineral Show, Fine Mineral Shows, LLD Productions, Inc., The Mineralogical Society of America, RMGM Promotions, and Tucson Gem and Mineral Society