I'm new to this forum, so first off hello everyone!
A friend of mine found this piece recently.He seems to think it's emerald, and I'm inclined to agree with him, but I know next to nothing about identifying rough gemstones.
It is *very* hard to tell from the picture. However, the texture looks like a schist of some variety. I know we aren't supposed to post a large image - can you post a link we can click on to a large image?
I'll get a link to a higher resolution image up here after work.
After some brief research, it appears that emeralds can be found in the "massive" form. Which apparently means they can form into no discernible shape, i.e. Not Hexagonal.
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21602 Location: San Francisco
Welcome to the forum, Pilotsean. I'm sure you appreciate that identification of an unknown involves more than determining its color. "It's green therefore it must be an emerald."
More information is needed. What sort of environment was it found in? Specifically where? What is the hardness of the material? And please refer to the following pdf, Do not try using your diamonds and quartz crystals to determine hardness. You run the risk of destroying them.
Courtesy of the University of Minnesota in Duluth: Takes a time to load, so go pour another cup of coffee and come back. [pdfview]http://www.gemologyonline.com/mineral_properties.pdf[/pdfview]
Fuschite (Cr muscovite mica) is probably a good guess. The texture is very sheeny, with a distinctly schisty luster, and the color is too rich for chlorite.
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