How much is amber?

Amber can be found anywhere in the world. The age of young stones is 35 million years. And the most ancient that were found, 140 million years.

A welcome stone can be found in Dominicana, Romania, Lebanon, Canada, Mexico, Belarus, Sicily. And also there are finds in Japan, New Zealand, China and Greenland. But the main deposits are in the US and the Baltic Sea. China is the leader in the production of expensive amber products. There is actively mined mineral - from 4 to 10 tons per year.

As for the cost of stone, the most expensive is amber from the island of Haiti of the Dominican Republic. Only there you can find blue amber. It is difficult to handle, but jewelry made from this stone is stronger and more durable than any other amber. A fist-sized mineral is sold for $ 300.

In China, the average size of a dairy amber stone is 20,000 rubles. This exceeds the price of blue amber from the Dominican Republic.

Wanting to know what the price of a gram of amber is, we conclude on the basis of the average price, we get 150 rubles. Accordingly, 1 kg of mineral costs 150 thousand rubles. And also the cost depends on whether the stone is processed or untreated.

Amber is mined most often in Kaliningrad. The main place of sale of the stone is Moscow and St. Petersburg. The formation of value depends entirely on the difficulty of manufacturing the product. A gram can cost from 30 to 150 rubles. Kilogram, respectively, from 30 000 to 150 000 rubles. A cheap product can mean that the product is made of pressed or stolen stone. Or, worst of all, maybe a fake.

In the “black” market, buyers pay searchers for 1 kg of amber from 50 to 7000 dollars.

Any thing with amber inside adorns its owner. One piece of stone can have several colors. It is easy to process, and because of this you can create any form of decoration.

The most ancient products from amber are beads. Now the choice is wider. It is possible to make a brooch, a hairpin, earrings, a pendant, a bracelet and so on from a stone. But you can also find various souvenirs made of amber. And still the stone promotes success in different fields of application. Consider each of them.

The ancient sages were convinced that the stone can cure serious illnesses, normalize the general condition of a person, relieve from problems with the heart, respiratory system and lungs. It was rumored that amber was able to stop vomiting and bleeding by its healing power.

Hippocrates treated teeth, rubbing amber powder into the gums, believing that these procedures give them a snow-white look. Migraine treated with fumigation with amber. This was considered a luxurious way of treatment, and not everyone could afford it, since amber itself cost cosmic money.

Slavs believed that stone is also able to protect from the evil eye and the evil word. Nursing mothers wore a necklace to protect the house from evil spirits.

Today, the use of amber for medicinal purposes is gaining popularity again. Only methods of treatment are somewhat different. It is used for symptoms such as:

• headache - the stone is heated and applied to the temporal part of the head, accompanied by light massage movements;
• disease of the respiratory system - breathing over a water bath of amber;
• thyroid disease - wear beads of unpolished amber;
• joints - apply heated stone to painful places, and also wear a bracelet;
• stressful condition - massage with the use of amber oil;
• cosmetics with amber Refreshes and gives elasticity to the skin.

90% of minerals are not suitable for creating jewelry. Small pieces, waste, fragments are used in paintwork, perfumery and many other areas.

Succinic acid is actively used in agriculture. With its help, corn seeds are processed, and they germinate very quickly and delight with high yields.

Amber not only has powerful healing properties, but is also a real find for scientists. Thanks to this stone, scientists were able to find out the past of our planet by describing the many plants and animals that have been preserved inside the mineral.

Amber is often found with petrified insects. In 1997, they even managed to find a stone with a frog inside. And also finds with a lizard, a moth and even a dinosaur's tail are known. These sights are housed in a museum.

Modern technologies are rapidly moving forward, so when you buy amber you need to know exactly how to distinguish it from counterfeit. The type of materials used is capable of misleading even a person who examines stones. According to their external data, forgeries have the maximum similarity with natural stone. therefore you need to study the material that will help you see the hype.

Consider materials that can imitate natural stone.

This imitation has a pine aroma and is softer to the touch than a real stone. If you look at the stone in the sun, you can see a homogeneous structure, without a single impregnation.

A fake is very difficult to distinguish from the original even by experienced jewelers. Only melting the stone will help here.

This resin lacks the hardness that is inherent in natural stone. Cowry is suitable for making furniture, not jewelry.

Plastic amber looks very attractive and does not differ much from the original. Plastic is very easy to detect. For this you need to take in hand decoration. The weight of the fake product is practically not felt.

Glassware is often very similar to the original, both in appearance and weight. The only thing that produces a fake is that the glass ornament is not scratched, while natural stone is very easy to scratch.

Externally, it looks like a natural stone. It is made from waste and unwanted particles. Properties of pressed amber are the same as the present. Give out his small bubbles and low transparency.

To be as similar as possible to the original, various defects are artificially made to it.

The stone has many shades of muted color. Considering the product in the light, you can see a lot of inclusions and heterogeneity of appearance.

It is worth to doubt if you have a product with a geometrically correct pattern, bright color and without a single flaw.

Previously, if insects or plants were found in the mineral, this allowed to verify the original stone. Today, it can easily be a fake. Inclusions are much more expensive than ordinary amber, so it is worth giving attention to details. In the original, the insect should be as natural as possible trying to get out. In a fake, it is already dead, so its location will be appropriate.

It is clear that in the store you will not be able to try to scratch the product or alloy, in order to ensure the authenticity of the goods.At home it will be easier. One of the easiest ways is to hold a blade or knife over a stone in an inconspicuous place. Natural amber will crumble, and the fake will only have chips.

Consider also other ways to identify a fake.

Take a glass of water, add 8 teaspoons of salt to it, stir and drop a stone there. You can evaluate the result by the fact that the stone has sunk or not. The original will not sink, nor will it be a product made of pressed amber or copal.

Natural amber is charged with negative energy. To do this, rub the stone on wool or silk and attach it to small pieces of paper. Paper will stick to natural stone.

When the stone is rubbed, its temperature rises, and you can smell the smell of turpentine or pine scent. If you try to melt amber with the hot end of a needle, you can see white smoke and catch the smell of rosin. Any fake will emit a chemical scent.

Natural stone easily transfers the effects of chemical reagents to it. The plastic fake shatters immediately. Alcohol or solvent will spoil the decoration of Copal. Pressed amber will become tacky after wiping.

The mineral from a natural stone reacts to ultra-violet light. Ultraviolet provides an opportunity to see the wave-like transitions and heterogeneous structure.

Amber is the oldest mineral. Once upon a time it was believed that it was formed from frozen honey. He conceals within himself the mighty power which he carries from century to century. Therefore, it is important to know its features and to be able to distinguish a fake from the original in order not to be deceived, and buying a stone brought not disappointment, but only well-being and joy to your home.

For information about which amber is particularly valuable, and which specimens are not appreciated, see the following video.