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Istarted thinking about what makes up a “rockhound” when I was leaving an emerald field in North Carolina. The owner had shown me several of the emeralds from her diggings and then made a derogatory remark about the rockhounds that visited her mine, citing their lack of knowledge in looking for these gems. At the moment I was hot, sweaty and covered with a layer of wet red clay from digging at the bottom of a pit for several hours. I did not take to this remark kindly and had to bite my tongue not to make a caustic comment in return. However, as I drove away I remembered that she had several beautiful emeralds she couldn’t bear to part with, along with a stunning piece of quartz that she recently bought from one of her customers. Ha, I thought, she is nothing but a rockhound herself. She just has morespecialized knowledge of the minerals in her area.