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Neodymium probably has the highest name recognition of any of the rare earths, because of its use in "neodymium magnets", also known as "rare earth magnets" and "neodymium-iron-boron magnets", which are currently the strongest permanent magnets known.
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  Rare earth magnet.
Neodymium magnets are very brittle and are therefore often plated with nickel. Ed Pegg demagnetized one of his magnets (to protect any laptop computers put on the table over the element), and I chipped away some of the plating. We think this is probably about 30% neodymium.
These are dangerously strong magnets! In fact they are so strong you can levitate bits of pyrolytic graphiteover them, as you can see in the video.
Source: Force Field
Contributor: Ed Pegg Jr
Acquired: 15 April, 2002
Price: $3
Size: 0.5"
Purity: <35%
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Hunky lump.
Finally, a lump of actual pure neodymium. The stuff is everywhere in magnets, and it's not terribly expensive in that form, but it's not commonly found in pure form outside of chemical catalogs. I store this lump under mineral oil to protect it from oxidation.
Source: George (not 007) Lazenby
Contributor: George (not 007) Lazenby
Acquired: 20 November, 2002
Price: Donated
Size: 0.75"
Purity: 99.99%
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 Lump.
This sample arrived with a full set of lanthanides at a time when I was missing europium, terbium, holmium, ytterbium, and of course lutetium.
This very kind donation from Max Whitby of The Red Green & Blue Company in England completed my element collection, to the extent that it gave me a plausible sample of every element one can plausibly have a sample of. (The Red Green & Blue Company is selling a periodic table collection containing similar samples of the same stuff, and if you want a ready-made collection of elements, that's the first place I would look.)
To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description or the company's website which includes many photographs and pricing details. I have two photographs of each sample from the set: One taken by me and one from the company. You can see photographs of all the samples displayed in a periodic table format: my pictures or their pictures. Or you can see both side-by-side with bigger pictures in numerical order.
The picture on the left was taken by me. Here is the company's version (there is some variation between sets, so the pictures sometimes show different variations of the samples):
Source: Max Whitby of The Red Green & Blue Company
Contributor: Max Whitby of The Red Green & Blue Company
Acquired: 20 December, 2002
Price: Donated
Size: 0.5"
Purity: 99.4%
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Sample from the Everest Element Set.
Up until the early 1990's a company in Russia sold a periodic table collection with element samples. At some point their American distributor sold off the remaining stock to a man who is now selling them on eBay. The samples (excepted gasses) weight about 0.25 grams each, and the whole set comes in a very nice wooden box with a printed periodic table in the lid.
To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description and information about how to buy one, or you can see photographs of all the samples from the set displayed on my website in a periodic table layout or with bigger pictures in numerical order.
Source: Rob Accurso
Contributor: Rob Accurso
Acquired: 7 February, 2003
Price: Donated
Size: 0.2"
Purity: >99%
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