Persson Rare Minerals is driven by a passion to bring you fine, unique and unusual mineral specimens at prices I would want to pay myself. It’s that simple.
Persson Rare Minerals LLC is a small Denver, Colorado-based company specializing in fine and unusual mineral, ore, and rock specimens for the collectors, academics, and museums. Founded in 2012 by Phil Persson, Persson Rare Minerals builds on almost 20 years of collecting, buying, and selling mineral specimens.
Phil’s passion for geology and mineral collecting began as a child living near the “fluorescent mineral capital of the world”, Franklin New Jersey, and eventually led to a BA in geology from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2012 and an MSc. in economic geology with a focus on geochemistry and petrology at the Colorado School of Mines in 2017. He has been a co-author and collaborator on numerous scientific papers, abstracts and magazine articles on mineralogy and geology, with a focus on rare earth element minerals and pegmatites of Colorado. He enjoys public speaking and has given dozens of talks for mineral clubs and events, as well as helped organize several scientific symposia in Colorado, and continues to be involved in several ongoing scientific collaboration in Colorado and beyond focusing on mineralogy, petrology, and geochemistry.
Persson Rare Minerals strives to offer unusual, unique specimens which “stand out from the crowd”, and come with both a historical and scientific background that makes them more than just “pretty rocks.” Persson Rare Minerals is a vendor at major gem and mineral shows in the USA and abroad, in addition to online sales and semi-annual road trips to visit customers and museums around the USA.
We welcome you to make an appointment to visit our mineral showroom and gallery located in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, just 15 minutes from downtown Denver and 40 minutes from Denver International Airport.
Our Mission
Persson Rare Minerals strives to represent all our mineral specimens with full honestly, transparency and integrity. While it has grown considerably in recent decades, the mineral collecting and dealing world is still small, and I want to maintain a reputation for fairness and transparency in all my business relationships, both with clients and suppliers.
The mineral collecting world is at a critical juncture, fed by the skyrocketing prices of fine mineral specimens at the top of the quality and rarity spectrum, and the concurrent “dragging up” of prices on lesser specimens. With this in mind, Persson Rare Minerals pledges to not only offer minerals at all price points and for all types of collectors, but to use my nearly 20 year experience seriously buying, selling, collecting, and evaluating mineral specimens to offer our customers exceptional value and exceptional quality.
Finally, Persson Rare Minerals primarily exists for one reason- a passion for minerals, mineralogy, and geology, which has guided my life for as long as I can remember, and has allowed me to truly be in my ‘dream career.’ Helping collectors, scientists, and the public learn about minerals and their complexity, beauty and profound place in our lives and society is what motivates me every day. Helping collectors and museums build meaningful, thoughtful collections which are intellectually and aesthetically stimulating has always been my goal. The satisfaction I take in getting to handle and work with incredible natural objects every day far supersedes any financial motivation, and guides my moral compass in how I interact with and treat those around me in the mineral community and beyond.
My Collecting Philosophy
Minerals, in all their myriad forms, are truly ‘nature’s art.’ But they are more than just beautiful aesthetic objects. They encapsulate a rich mixture scientific, historical, and human elements, which all work in tandem to give ‘life to inanimate objects.’ As pieces of the earth, they unlock the mysteries of geochemistry, of geology, of the movement and concentration of the elements into the resources which power modern life. As historical objects, they frame the history of earth science and have been coveted by learned men and woman for centuries. Aesthetically, the captivate both the lay person and the connoisseur with their exquisite colors, forms and seemingly infinite variation.
My collecting philosophy is simple: quality should be the number one factor in acquisitions, followed by value. While mineral specimen quality is somewhat subjective, a group of experienced collectors or dealers can usually reach a reasonable consensus. Value is a much more subjective attribute. The factors which influence a specimen’s value are not always clear, and not always entirely rational. While we live in the “Golden Age” of mineral collecting, the modern price paradigm, particularly for good to exceptional specimens, is such that large numbers of collectors have either stopped collecting, or have had to significantly scale back their acquisitions. While trends at the top of the market have important benefits to the growth of the rest of the hobby, the ‘dragging up’ of prices (prices, not values) of lesser specimens has had a serious effect on the health of the broader mineral specimen market. Knowledgeable (and new) collectors who seek high-quality specimens representing important species and/or localities at reasonable prices are facing increased challenges.
In light of these factors, and as a serious collector of both rare species and “worldwide classics’ for over 20 years, I pledge to make every effort to offer specimens that I would be proud to display in my own collection, and at prices that are commensurate with a specimen’s value and not just its marketability. At its purest, the relationship between a dealer and customer is more than just transactional- the dealer is an advisor, a confidante, someone with the ability to secure whatever the customer desires from whatever end of the earth it may come from.
Quick Facts about me:
Birthplace/Year: Uppsala Sweden, 1986
First Mineral Specimen: tumbled amazonite pebble, age 6.
How I really caught the “mineral bug”: Discovering Franklin, New Jersey at age 13 when my family moved nearby.
Mineralogical “Heroes”: Paul B. Moore, Martin Erhmann, Lazard Cahn, Paul Desautels
What We Sell…
I am truly a collector of ALL minerals, from microscopic “black uglies”, to aesthetic masterpieces which are regarded by contemporary collectors as “natural art.” I firmly believe that all minerals and collectors have value, and I find the intellectual and aesthetic sides of mineral collecting to be equally stimulating and, if fact, complimentary.
Persson Rare Minerals acquisition strategy is focused on collections, and bringing rare, classic, and unusual material on to the market, along with occasional new finds. My specialities include minerals of the Michigan Copper Country, American Classics, Franklin & Sterling Hill New Jersey Minerals, rare element species (especially REE and Nb/Ta minerals), as well as rare species in high-quality, macroscopic crystals. I have a special passion for species and localities which I feel are often ‘neglected’ on the modern market, and also for working with one-on-one with connoisseur-level collectors to supply them with tough-to-get examples of rare classics from around the world.
Hope to hear from you soon!