Rock, mineral, and fossil collecting is a popular hobby around the world and is not limited to any particular country or region. Indeed, many highly-sought specimens are available only in locales considered exotic or far-flung. Importantly, however, each area has a specific legal system applicable to that area; there is no single, uniform body of laws related to specimen collecting that applies across the globe.2
Accordingly, whether particular collecting activities are legal in one area does not mean that those same activities are legal in other areas. Given its likely audience, this article concentrates on the legal aspects of rock, mineral, and fossil collecting in the United States. Even within the United States, however, the legality of collecting involves state and local laws that could result in dramatically different outcomes despite otherwise nearly identical circumstances.3
