Crystal Cave - Costa Mesa Large Geodes
891 Baker St.
Suite A-16
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 754-1151
Crystal Cave in Costa Mesa has been around for a long time. I remember buying a mysterious box from them back in the 1990’s before I went off to college. The box was made of wood and had brass symbol work on it. Over the years I have used the box to hold interesting semi-precious stones and old coins. Now I have a small, yet quality coin collection and I still use that very box. There is a mysterious story about that box if you care to listen…
When I had an office in Santa Ana, that was a strange time in my life. I used to have very little money, and I used cash to purchase food. Every penny counted. But since I bought food in Santa Ana I would sometimes get old coins as change. The reason for this is because Santa Ana is one of the older parts of Orange County and a great deal of older coins are in circulation still. It was in this city that I found in my change, a 1901 penny. I loved the coin and put it in my box.
Over a few months, I would place other coins that I found. Some were in good condition, while others were quite abused yet they had tremendous character. These misshapen coins had blemishes of true experience so I felt they needed to come out of circulation and rest a while. And what better place to rest, than in a mysterious box.
I kept the box in the sunlight. It rested upon a mirror to absorb even more light. Some days it would get warm to the touch. And the wood would warp and I understood that. The wood would bleach and I welcomed it. Such things are normal and expected. But on especially bright days, the brass-work on the box would actually get hot to my fingertips. It was those days that made me realize that the coins inside…well, something was happening.
A few weeks later, I found an interesting penny that was a grey color. It was a 1943 penny. Unfortunately it was not the kind that is worth a lot of money, but it has character and spirit and I wanted to welcome it to my collection. I placed it underneath a faceless slug coin, and it rested beside a New Zealand coin and few old nickels and a piece of black stone. But a few nights passed, and I noticed something strange about the box.
The box was slightly open. I looked inside the box to see if anything was missing. Could it be that someone was tampering with my things? It made little sense because the items contained within it had little value to anyone but myself.
Crystal Cave owner: Barbara - CLICK to Visit the online store!
But when I tried to close the box, it resisted. I was confused. I checked the hinges and the sides to make sure a spring or a stick hadn’t gotten stuck into the box because I had been dissecting some old VCR’s in the corner of the office. To my surprise, there were no obstructions. I tried to close the box again, but it resisted me. Eventually, I pressed very hard to close the thing and it finally yielded to me. But when I removed my hand it slowly opened to a slight crack. I ended up getting frustrated and I put a heavy jar filled with small VCR parts on top of it to keep it closed.
The next day I removed the jar and it cracked open again. This boggled me because there were no springs in the hinge mechanism to open and shut the box. It was a very simple contraption, just a box mind you…things don’t get any simpler than this. So I just settled my mind on the notion that the box had somehow become magnetized by the amount of coins in the box. Although none of the coins were actual magnets, metal can possibly have magnetic fields or perhaps the metal was interacting with the brass hinges and the brass decorations on the top of the wood.
Regardless of whatever the reason for the box’s behavior, a month later it stopped acting strangely.
Now, I still have this box. And the collection within it has grown. So much so in face, that I’ve needed to find a new box to share the coins. So I decided to revisit the Crystal Cave and see what they had to offer. There were many boxes to choose from. Similarly to so long ago, there was a wide selection…wider in fact. I didn’t need a huge box, just something to house the younger coins, ones that didn’t have the massive amount of age and wisdom of the older coins. I finally chose a small box, again with some brass inlay decoration. It has a beautiful triangular design on the top that has squares in the motif as well. The shapes were geometrically pleasing to the eye.
I said to Barbara, the shop owner, that there is a way of things, “identification and multiplication.” That is the best way to spread energy into a new field. So many of the foreign coins are going into the small box. But in retrospect, I know I’m no where near with the small box. I have put an interim of coins in it, but I need to be willing to sacrifice some of the location of the oldest coins from the old box and let it stay within the new one. That is the only way to to seal the transition.
But enough of boxes. The store of Crystal Cave was lovely to walk into, as usual. The place is filled with interesting books and crystals and the occasional geode that was pictured above. Barbara was exquisitely helpful and friendly and so has their staff always been in the times I’ve visited the place. I’ve bought crystals from this store and they have always been very high quality.
I know I will visit the Crystal Cave again.
Here’s a link to the Crystal Cave official Website – CLICK HERE
-Tyler