Prez Says...

by Dan Teich, MSDC President

Geological time certainly doesn’t follow the Gregorian calendar. Nevertheless, welcome to 2026!

I expect that you exchanged nice rocks over the holidays with friends and family. A nice silver from Greece, perhaps? Or a pyromorphite from Pennsylvania? If not, you should definitely tune into our next Meeting on January 7, where Dr. Todd Ballinger of Heraeus Precious Metals will present “Precious Metals, Their Uses and Life Cycle.”

Our next talk comes off the heels of our second installment of the wonders of Greek mineralogy, as presented by Frederick Paraskevoudakis. We were taken far underground, into chambers covered in copper minerals and their associated minerals. Many of these steps were walked by our distant ancestors! His videos were hard to comprehend: these mines are real and have been worked for centuries. Definitely brightens one’s exploratory spirit. 

In the spirit of Frederick’s silver talk, I added a silver to my collection, albeit not from Greece. Canada is famous for its silver deposits around the town of Cobalt, Ontario. In the Ontario Legislative Building, there’s a massive chunk of a silver vein, as shown in the photo below. Probably too big for any apartment!

That said, here’s my little sliver of silver. 

A happy and healthy new year to all. May it be filled with friendship, and of course, rocks. Lots of rocks!