What kind of amber is considered natural?

Amber has been actively used by people for many centuries both to create unique jewelry and for medical purposes. Due to its bright yellow color, it is also called “sun stone”. Although a huge variety of colors and shades of this mineral are found in nature, the most common are honey, lemon, orange, red, white, ivory, brown, brown, and black amber. Baltic amber is one of the most abundant in nature. It is the one most often used for making jewelry. According to scientists’ calculations, the total mass of all deposits of this mineral is 1 million tons. Its deposits were formed 44-45 million years ago. Despite such a great age, it is not the oldest; deposits of Lebanese stone were formed 130-145 million years ago. Its feature is its supramolecular structure, which makes it very resistant to the influence of natural factors. In order to understand the uniqueness of this material, you should familiarize yourself with its history, namely how solid stone was formed from ordinary resin of coniferous trees over millions of years. Under the influence of external factors (thunderstorms, heavy rains, hurricanes, animals), the branches of gymnosperms were damaged or broken, and the liquid flowing out of them fell onto the ground, where it hardened. Over time, already underground under the influence of climatic factors, the transformation of resin takes place – its fossilization. During this period, the mineral acquires the well-known yellow color. And the last stage is the formation of amber, which takes place in water basins.

Unique amber color

• succinite (which has captured the bulk of the market);
• glossite (brown opaque);
• bokkerite (dark elastic opaque);
• gedanite (waxy yellow);
• stantienite (black brittle).

The unique properties of amber are that it treats many diseases (sore throat, headaches, heart ailments) or alleviates their progression. These properties of the stone were noticed by mankind back in ancient centuries and are still often used for medical purposes. Obviously, what makes amber practically omnipotent is its natural origin. Amber is also credited with magical properties: since ancient times it was considered a symbol of happiness and health, so it was often used as a talisman or to fumigate a room with a lit stone.

Variety of Baltic amber

The wide variety of amber contributed to the creation of several of its classifications. One of its options was the division into types according to the color and transparency of the mineral. There are such main types of amber:

Translucent – has a standard yellow color in any shades. Slightly cloudy, like frosted glass. It is easy to polish.

Batter is a completely transparent or brown stone. There are minerals that are transparent, like a tear. Its advantage is easy processing, which allows you to give the stone any desired shape and size.

Bastard – has a heterogeneous structure. It looks like a transparent stone (in most cases yellow) with dark inclusions inside.

Red amber is an opaque mineral whose color varies from light pink to dark red. Its structure makes it difficult to process.

Layered – amber of this type is quite labor-intensive to process; most often it is used in fossil form, since it has a pronounced layered structure. It lies in the upper layers of the soil.

Matte white – selected, expensive amber. Excellent machinability and does not crumble. Its color is white milky amber. There are rare specimens that have a uniform, dense white color, which is how they got their name “ivory.”

Royal yellow amber is white matte amber, aged by time (more than 20 years) under the influence of oxygen and sunlight. This is the most valuable amber, as jewelry created from it is considered antique and is highly valued by collectors around the world.

Landscape is the most expensive mineral that is most often used in the jewelry industry. A very rare stone with a unique landscape design.

Foamy – contains a large amount of frozen foam and air bubbles. It has a porous textured structure of the stone. This amber is marine and contains many trace elements, iodine and succinic acid. This amber is used in making medicinal jewelry. Color can range from black to white.

Black – has a dark color (black amber or gray), is not transparent, and contains inclusions of natural origin, such as algae, bark, clay and others.

According to another classification, all amber is divided into succinite, gedanite, crancite and glossite. This classification is based on the structure of the fossil minerals and the depth of their occurrence.

The value of amber products

Amber has a variety of uses. Most often it is used to make jewelry. Beads, pendants, bracelets, earrings, and brooches are made from it. The most valuable stones are those that contain the remains of prehistoric flora and fauna. Most often, inclusions are found in minerals – inclusions of insects such as moths, mosquitoes, beetles, ants and spiders, in rare cases dragonflies, butterflies and even lizards. Such specimens are very rare and have historical value.

Unique green amber is a very rare stone. It increases the cost of products several times and is distinguished by a delicate green tint and translucent structure. It is believed to have strong energy, have a calming effect and improve immunity.

Beads made from hot amber look great. Before their production, all stones are calcined in furnaces with a temperature of more than 200 degrees using sea sand. The longer this process takes place, the darker the mineral becomes. With prolonged processing, heated amber reaches a cognac color and acquires various internal microcracks.

Baltic amber is also used to make interior decorative elements, such as paintings. An opaque, smoky type of mineral, also called landscape amber, is suitable for their manufacture. The mineral is used as incense. When the temperature rises, it gives off a pleasant pine aroma.

The stone is made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen atoms. Thanks to this, it is widely used in the chemical industry. For example, it is used to make varnishes that are used to coat furniture, and rosin.

Amber is a mineral of organic origin. Fossil resin is 35-140 million years old, but it was mainly formed in the Paleogene – 50 million years ago) Amber is a waste product of Pinus succinieferra trees. After their death, coniferous trees fell into marine sediments, where the wood turned into brown coals and the resin into amber. The brown coal was destroyed, and the amber accumulated in the remains of decomposition, called “blue-green earth,” from which it was then washed out by the waves of the sea.

How to distinguish fake and imitation amber.

Today there are a lot of fake amber on the amber market. They are made from bakelite, casein, polyester, polystyrene, epoxy resin and other materials. How to understand such a variety of imitations?
Of course, in the store no one will let you scrape the product with a knife or rub it with ether or set it on fire. First of all, pay attention to the color, inclusions, transparency of the insert or beads.

1. Appearance As a rule, fakes have multiple inclusions of air bubbles and so-called sparkles, as well as a uniform color of beads along the entire length of the jewelry. Natural amber, especially that which has not been subject to heat treatment, has an interesting color with transitions of shades into one another and a unique pattern. In natural amber, the degree of transparency depends on the presence of the smallest voids. It can be transparent, translucent or opaque. Color: colorless, chalky white (foamy) and bone white, yellow, golden or honey yellow, orange, red-brown.

2. The weight. Amber is one of the lightest gems. Plastic, and especially glass, fakes are noticeably heavier and also colder to the touch.

3. Static electricity method. The fact that amber, when rubbed on a cloth, becomes negatively charged and attracts small pieces of paper, etc., is not always a diagnostic method, since some plastics have the same properties. True, in amber this property is more pronounced, which makes it possible to identify a certain number of fakes. But if there is no electrification, it is an obvious fake.

4. Smell when burning. If you apply a heated needle to the surface of amber, white smoke with a characteristic resinous smell will appear. Amber, being a resin, burns well, releasing a specific smell of rosin (amber was previously called “sea incense” and was used to fumigate rooms as incense, as well as for medicinal purposes). A sample of natural amber, after entering the flame, lights up within 3 seconds; after the flame is withdrawn, the stone continues to burn with a large flame. Of course, plastic beads will “smell” completely differently.

5. Water “procedures”. Natural amber, with the exception of some varieties, sinks in fresh water and floats in salt water (the average density of amber is 1,05-1,12 g/cm1,26; amber has the lowest density of all precious and semi-precious stones; for comparison, synthetic resins bakelite density 1,28 – 1,33 g/cm³, casein – density 8 g/cm³). Try drowning a sample of amber by placing it in salt water at a concentration of 10-XNUMX teaspoons of salt per glass of water. Natural amber should float to the surface. But fake amber will remain lying at the bottom of the vessel. Plastics and modern resins (except polystyrene) have a higher density than amber and will sink. This method is of course effective for beads and samples that are not set in metal.

6. Shine. Amber fluoresces when exposed to ultraviolet light. In ultraviolet light, natural amber gives a “cloudy” light from light green to yellow, but most of it produces blue shades. Transparent amber glows pale blue, cloud, bastard and bone amber glows milky white with a faint bluish tint. The intensity of the blue glow depends on the degree of transparency of the amber. The more transparent the amber, the denser the luminescence colors in it. They can vary from light and grayish blue to violet. The weathered crust luminesces in brown tones. You can ask a cashier at a supermarket or bank to put an amber item into an ultraviolet banknote detector and see for yourself that it is genuine.

7. Mechanical method. Using a knife or razor blade, cut a strip from the surface of the amber in an inconspicuous place. If you see spiral-shaped soft shavings, this is a fake. Real amber crumbles shallowly and is also ground into powder. One of the most famous imitations of natural amber is pressed amber, the so-called ambroid – a product obtained by processing at high temperatures and high pressure from amber flour and small pieces of amber with or without the addition of dyes. Ambroid looks like real natural amber and has all its inherent physical properties, but does not contain succinic acid, and therefore is called amber only conditionally. Unlike natural amber, this type of amber softens under the influence of ether: if the surface of pressed amber is moistened with cotton wool and ether, it becomes sticky.