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Message:: [QUOTE="robinjojo, post: 4614512, member: 110226"]Here's a little more "eye candy". This is an old surface agate from Chihuahua, Northern Mexico.  This state is renown for its classic locations, often associated with the gigantic ranches along Mexico Federal Highway 45, which was constructed immediately after World War II. This example came to me by way "Doc" Taylor, who owned Doc's Rock Box in Southgate Michigan, just south of Detroit, back in the late 60's.  It is a surface agate that weathered out of the host rock, and exposed to the elements for thousands of years, hence its intense colors, colors, by the way, that can never be replicated in the same stone by artificial means. This agate, which cost me $2.50 at the time, was sold to me as a Laguna agate, named after the famed ranch near Ojo Laguna, Chihuahua.  Most of the specimens from that ranch have been mined for over 50 years, and the colors can vary greatly from one mine to the other.  Generally speaking, the finest mined agates came out of Northern Mexico from the 1950's to the mid 1960's, and then again with renewed mining activity in the mid to late 1990's. This specimen measures 75 mm x 50 mm x 30 mm The weight is 175.8 grams [ATTACH=full]1142882[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]