Hey, how y'all doing.anyway I found this nifty rock I was sure wasn't just quartz. It had no visible fractures and was very smooth. Smooth enough to reflect light. No quartz I found thus far was visibly reflective without breaks once dry. Honestly I'm still not convinced (: paid a gem lab to take a look and tell me it was quartz.... when you can't believe the experts, right?

What's your opinion? Btw would have loved to be able to ask earlier but you have a new user lockout of like 24h, can't even introduce yourself... is it really that delicate of a community?

I'd never seen this white patina on quarts either. But then again I've never seen a diamond either, lol.

Welcome to the CP Forums BlackCat, please make yourself at home here. This site has the 24hr break-in period to thwart potential spammers I believe, sorry about that.
It's always difficult to ID minerals from pics alone but at first glance it does indeed look to be a piece of iron-stained Quartz.

Welcome to the club! Fortunately your sample looks simple enough to perform the ID tests without having to rely on opinions of pictures. This might be a good opportunity to peruse the mineral ID thread, and there are links throughout to helpful references: Mineral ID

According to my Smithsonian Rocks and Minerals book, quartz has a hardness of 7 (harder than a knife blade, but softer than a garnet) and specific gravity of 2.65.

If you find a really interesting specimen, you might have to do like Mike and Dave did and take it to the School of Mines (I got to see it on display there, in the CO area not far from the front desk): Xenotime

Great answers guys!

Hi BlackCat13th and welcome to the Colorado Prospector forums.

Make yourself right at home. Nope not a "delicate community" at all. Actually I think I validated your new username just about an hour after you'd registered it but maybe you didn't get that email till later?

Welcome to the forum