Safety first....
Safety glasses. If you are going to be breaking rocks or digging use safety glasses. Look for ones that have Z87 on them as that show they mee the standard.
Good boots. Avoid twisted ankles and smashed toes. Tip - If you have an used shoe place near you, look for steel toe boots with with metatarsal guards. The metatarsal guard goes over the top of your foot and protects those bones. Take it from experience, nothing hurts more than dropping something heavy on the top of your foot.
HiViz Vest - if you are going to be collecting along a road, a HiViz vest is a good investment.
Hard hat - if you are going to a road cut that has rocks above your head this is a wise thing to do.
Gloves - especially if you are digging for quartz. Broken quartz will cut you like a knife.
Rock hammer. Usefull for chipping off specimens and digging. Also, a handy scale for photographs.
Small sledge hammer. Handy for those bigger jobs.
Chisle useful to
Hand lens - to look at small details of samples. 10x is the most common and tents to the most useful.
Streak plate (white) - used for streak test of minerals which is what the mineral looks like as a powder. Very useful for some minerals.
Streak plate (black) - useful for minerals with light color streaks but most folks only use a white one.
Dropper bottle with 10% hydrochloric acid. See the Acid Test page for more information.
Photographic Scale - can be used in your photographs so the the view can tell the scale. Also, useful to measure small objects in the field.
Magnet - used to determine if a specimen is magnetic. Tip - I paint mine bright yellow so they are easy to see and it is easy to see specks of dark mineral stuck to it.
Hardness references - Hardness is a very useful tool for identifying minerals. See the hardness page for more information but here are some useful references to have:
Your fingernail. Hardness of 2.5.
Calcite hardness of 3. Tip a calcite rhombohedron works nice as it has flat surfaces for the specimen to scratch and points to try and scratch the specimen.
A penny pre-1983. Hardness of 3-3.5. Newer pennies are zinc and have a hardness of 2.5-3. Tip - some people cut the penny in half so there is a point to press onto the specimen.
Fluorite hardness 4. Tip - get some octahedrons so it will have flat surfaces to try and scratch and point to try and scratch specimens. You can normally get 100 grams for $10 on eBay or Esty.
Apatite hardness 5.
Glass plate hardness 5.5. If you don't have a glass plate, any small smooth glass item will do.
Orthoclase or some type of feldspar that is hardness 6.
Utility knife. Check it to make sure but most I've come across are 6 to 6.5.
Quartz hardness 7. A piece of flint or a rock quartz crystal works great.
Topaz hardness 8. Great if you have some but not a lot of minerals over 8.
Metal picks are useful for poking around and cleaning specimens. They also normally have a hardness around 6-7.