cleo12797
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 279
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Post by cleo12797 on Apr 16, 2007 21:37:30 GMT -5
Hi All, I manage a beadstore in Minnesota. We specialize in semi-precious beads as well as rocks and fossils. We have some stuff that I am hoping that someone can help me identify. One was sold to us as fire agate, but it has a snake-skin like appearance. I have no idea what the purple/gray is. Keep in mind that these have all been drilled for jewelry making. The "fire agate" was purchased at the gem and mineral show in Tucson in February. Thanks.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,463
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 16, 2007 22:23:14 GMT -5
Have no idea what the purple one is but it looks like some of the Mexican Rhyolites similar to Bulico Jasper. I've been curious about the other one too as it's a fairly new material that has been showing up labeled as "Crab Fire Agate" and "Fire Agate". So far I've asked three different dealers and have had three different origins provided: Indonesia, Africa, and Mexico. It is a very pretty and solid material and looks to me to be maybe a solidly agatized coral in which the polyp structure has been lost. I've seen some similar corals from Florida. This is the thing I don't like about trade names as this is not what is usually accepted as "Fire Agate". Got to say, pretty stuff though. Don't even have a slab in my collection yet as the only thing I've seen is finished stones and beads. I'm thinking this might even be a heat treated material as the color seems to be very homogeneous and consistent in all I've seen and I'd expect more variation in color were it a totally natural agate I've seen the pale varieties of Indonesian fossil coral from Sakabumi that have been heat treated to yield consistently redder colors....mel
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