The Lanthanides, a section of Period 6 of the periodic table with properties similar to the Group 4 element Actinium, comprise:

• #57 – Lanthanum (La), from lanthanein, Greek for “to lie hidde
• #58 – Cerium (Ce), after the recently discovered dwarf planet Ceres
• #59 – Praseodymium (Pr), from prasinos didymos, Greek for “green twin”, discovered along with neodymium
• #60 – Neodymium (Nd), from neos didymos, Greek for “new twin
• #61 – Prometheum (Pm), after the Greek titan who brought fire to mankind, Prometheus
• #62 – Samarium (Sm), after the mineral it is found in, samarskyte, itself named for Russian mine director Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets
• #63 – Europium (Eu), after Europe
• #64 – Gadolinium (Gd), after the mineral gadolinite, itself named rare earth chemist Johan Gadolin
• #65 – Terbium (Tb), after the Swedish village of Ytterby, where most rare earth elements were discovered
• #66 – Dysprosium (Dy), from dysprositos, Greek for “hard to get”
• #67 – Holmium (Ho), from holmia, the Latin name for Stockholm, near Ytterby
• #68 – Erbium (Er), after Ytterby
• #69 – Thulium (Tm), from Thule, the Greek name for Iceland and Scandinavia
• #70 – Ytterbium (Yb), after Ytterby
• #71 – Lutetium (Lu), from Lutetia, the Roman town that became Paris

Also known as the rare earth metals, all of the lanthanides, aside from promethium, are found together in various concentrations. Despite the term, many rare earth metals are as abundant as copper and iron.

Unless you buy these elements online, you will not be able to separate them at home (with the exception of neodymium magnets). There are two other ways to go about handling this in your collection: get a piece of a rare earth mineral such as gadolinite or samarskytem, or with a ferrocerium rod, also referred to as flint.