I got to know Frank Winger more than two years ago when I was just discovering on the world wide web that I am not the only sand freak on this planet. Frank has just welcomed me on the arenophile community and I had with him the second trade in my whole sand collector history. Since then we keep close contact and I have always been amazed by his extraordinary dedication to this hobby. Extremely kind with beginners and always willing to help, Frank is just one of the most enthusiastic sand collectors I have ever met.

A small representation of Frank’s collection

But Frank’s passion is not just kept for himself, instead he created an online presence which attracts since 2002 thousands of visitors fascinated about his extraordinary patience in drawing country maps, marking exact locations of sand samples and nicely organizing everything in logical and easy to navigate menus. Among other characteristic parts of his hobby, Frank is using an unique system of labelling his sand containers in a “more sumptuous way” as he describes it by himself:

Labels for sand containers with detailed information about location of each sample

Besides other fascinating parts of his website I have always been fascinated by the country maps neatly showing the borders of first administrative units. Frank invested a tremenduous amount of work in accurately marking each sample on the map and emphasizing with different colour the administratives units which he’s already got at least one sample from:

Country maps with administrative units and samples’ location (the little red dots)

Just check Frank’s website and enjoy his large sand collection!