Post subject: Different types of Amber and Quality
Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 8:03 am
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Joined: Fri Jan 12, 2018 7:52 am Posts: 1
I am thinking of buying a Baltic amber brooch, and was wondering about the different types of amber. What is the difference between Baltic amber, amber, butterscotch amber etc .Is one better quality than the other? Any advice is appreciated. This is the Baltic amber brooch I am thinking of buying...
Post subject: Re: Different types of Amber and Quality
Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2018 2:12 pm
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Joined: Mon May 26, 2014 9:42 pm Posts: 1033
Well, Baltic amber comes off the cost of the Baltic Sea (it washes up on the beaches). Amber is very light. There are a large number of places in the world where amber is found, as it is fossilized resin from a tree. Sometimes people will tell you that if an amber is not old enough it isn't fossilized (polymerized) enough to be called amber, and will call it Copal instead. Copal tends to still have some of the smell of resin, and is softer. Frankly I am not of that religion.
Amber comes in a lot of colors, and there have been a LOT of treatments devised to change it (make the spangles by heating it, for example), and taking a bunch of chips and "reconstituting" them into a single piece - sometimes adding an insect (or other thing) into it. So there are a LOT of fakes out there.
Indonesia is putting out a lot of very nice amber right now - and it comes in various colors and is pretty cheap. Baltic amber tends to be more expensive. I think the oldest amber ever found came from New Jersey - but I may be remembering wrong. I found some in North Carolina once - there are a couple of places it is found there.
The Dominican Republic puts out a lot - which some people will claim is copal.
Everyone -- feel free to correct this as it is off the top of my head.
Post subject: Re: Different types of Amber and Quality
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 8:17 am
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Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2013 5:29 pm Posts: 1047 Location: Paris
I know I am dropping by a bit late, but if I were you I would get interested in the amber from Mexico or Dominican Republic rather than from the Baltic sea. Baltic amber is common, widely marketed, and very generally heat-treated or worse, although not necessarily cheap. Amber from Mexico and Dominican Republic, even if it is a bit younger (but not copal) is more rare, untreated, beautifully and naturally transparent, same hardness, in a various range of tinges, and may exhibit a very charming natural fluorescence (greenish or blueish) which makes it look mysterious and sophisticated. I am a big fan !
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