I've never been into collecting rocks from places. But since my boyhood I've been very into hunting for fossils and indian relics whenever I get a chance.
Here's something I found in a dried creek bed in rural Campbell County on recent visit to Kentucky.
I sent a photo of it to a woman I know in the Smithsonian. What is it? A section of a large example of one of these, Orthoceras Nautaloid.
Roughly 400 million years old. That's the part that always makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. By the way, not rare or valuable, though most fossils of this creature are much smaller, like a roll of quarters. I have a lot in that size range.