In the world, due to the small output of natural amber, it is most suitable for experts to collect, and the price is naturally high. Amber is one of the seven treasures of Buddhism, which is most suitable for Buddhist practice. At the same time, it has strong energy to ward off evil spirits. Wearing amber ornaments can ward off evil spirits and eliminate powerful negative energy. It is the best ornament for people who often go out to keep safe. In ancient times, the West used it as an exorcism prop.
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Beeswax is also a kind of amber, but it is opaque and has different characteristics from amber.
So it is often mistaken for two different gems. Amber is a native natural ore, which is easy to embrittle, so the jewelry industry allows it to go through some procedures to make it difficult to embrittle. In this process, natural gas bubbles in amber will change due to temperature, such as expansion or rupture, thus forming internal patterns of different shapes. Crystal flowers formed by crystal flowers are usually irregular, rather than artificial regular circles.
The above methods are recognized and allowed by the jewelry industry, so they can't be regarded as imitation or unnatural, but some practices make people feel very despised. For example, synthesis is to grind natural amber into powder, add some plastic raw materials and reheat to synthesize regenerated amber! The natural structure of amber has been seriously damaged, and some of it has even been dyed with dyes. Among them, many crystal flowers that burst due to heat are mostly round with dense rules, but it is difficult for ordinary people to identify them, and even some merchants strongly advocate that the more crystal flowers, the more precious they are.
Beeswax is amber, but its color is different from translucent amber. Because of the high content and opacity of succinic acid, merchants call it beeswax, so the real beeswax has the same function as amber. When the beeswax is worn for a long time, it will gradually become transparent amber due to the decrease of human body temperature.
The identification of beeswax is the same as amber. Remind everyone that 99% of the beeswax circulating in the market now is fake, or it is synthesized by re-pressing powder. It's best not to buy it. In particular, a resin called Barker is even more terrible. Related articles are reproduced as follows:
abstract
On the basis of commenting on the identification characteristics of Kauri Copa resin and amber in New Zealand, according to the identification examples, the conventional gemological characteristics, inclusion characteristics, infrared spectrum test results and identification significance of Copa resin are expounded, and it is pointed out that alcohol and infrared spectrum are effective methods to accurately distinguish Copa resin from amber, while conventional gemological constants and animal and plant inclusions should be used cautiously as identification basis.
Cobalamin resin; Amber identification; Classification number P6 19.28
On many occasions, I have heard some people in the jewelry industry talk about the identification of amber. They believe that if "amber" contains animal or plant inclusions (or debris), then amber should be true, otherwise it may be false. Although many jewelry books have explained the inaccuracy of this "should" and "may", I don't know why many people (including some appraisers in the jewelry industry) still hold this view with a grain of salt. The reason may be related to the recognition that amber containing insects and plants is of high value, and it is difficult for other imitations to form insect and other animal and plant inclusions in it. In addition, amber produced in Liaoning, Henan and other places in China generally does not contain insect and other plant inclusions, so it can be seen that most of the pictures of amber or its imitations come from abroad.
However, New Zealand's natural kauri resin is abundant in the market. The discovery of this resin in Guangzhou market gives us a chance to fully realize the identification significance of amber by methods such as animal and plant inclusions.
Characteristics of Kauri Copa resin in New Zealand According to records, Kauri resin has always been an important export product of New Zealand. In 1850, 1 000 tons of resin were exported to Britain and North America, and in the following 1 00, the exported resin reached 450,000 tons ... These natural products produced in Ota— matea in northern New Zealand can be called Barker resin, which can be seen in many museums and various private collectors in the country of origin. Some are preserved in the original natural form, some are made into various carving crafts, antiques and molded products, and some are even dissolved into varnish. All kinds of insects and packages can often be seen in kauri resin crafts.
The characteristics of New Zealand Coba resin have been quoted by many gemologists such as Webster (1994), Anderson (1990), Fresquet and so on. In fact, many differences between New Zealand Coba resin and real amber are based on the study of New Zealand Coba resin.
Spencer et al. recently re-studied these coba resins from New Zealand based on the samples provided by the Institute of Gemological Society of New Zealand and the samples obtained from New Zealand coal mines. The research results are summarized in table 1.
In his research, the most important gemological discovery shows that the ether introduced in classic gemological books to identify cobalamin and amber is not ideal for kauri, that is, some kauri is actually insoluble or only slightly soluble in ether.
Drop a drop of ether on these insoluble Coba resins, and there is no reaction or slight reaction after 30s; However, after dropping a drop of alcohol on these Copa resins (including 25Ma resins), all of them will react in alcohol after 30s: the surface will become sticky or opaque, while the real amber will not react at all when dropping alcohol, indicating that it is insoluble in alcohol.
Copa resin is also easy to produce dissolution reaction similar to alcohol in glacial acetic acid, but glacial acetic acid will produce irritating smell, which may be harmful to alcohol. Human body burns, so it is not suitable as a gemological test method.
In addition, his experiments also show that the reaction of natural Copa resin under ultraviolet fluorescence is unstable, which is difficult to be used as an identification basis to distinguish amber from Copa resin.
Recently, we were lucky enough to identify a batch (4 pieces) of "amber" that was said to have been brought in from Hong Kong. They are unprocessed and long, and one of them also contains stem-like inclusions. Columnar (Figure 1), golden in appearance, shiny in resin, about 20cm*30cm in size, smooth but irregular in surface, with many insects and round irregular bubbles visible to the naked eye, and some stem plants in one piece.
Conventional gemmological determination shows that its physical constant is 1.057 g/cm' and its refractive index is 1.54- 1.53 (spot method). It shows blue-white fluorescence under long-wave ultraviolet light and lavender fluorescence under short-wave ultraviolet light. Cutting with a knife is very brittle, and the hot needle will have a resin fragrance reaction. Wipe the sample gently with a few drops of alcohol.
The most interesting thing is the animal and plant contents of these resins. Their distribution density is different in different samples, but their species are basically the same. A sample can be divided into at least six kinds of insects, namely flies, mosquitoes, beetles, lice, moths and spiders (Figure 2).
These insects have very vivid morphological characteristics, and one of them has a feeling of flying with the open wings and the flowing texture of resin. What's even more amazing is that behind an insect, we photographed a nest of eggs laid during its struggle (Figure 3), while the fine hairs on another insect reminded us of its fierce struggle at the last moment of life (Figure 4). However, even if it is angry, it can't escape the fate. These dynamic characteristics enable us to determine that these resins cannot be artificially pressed or copied, because it is really not easy to press hundreds of living things and flying insects on the same sample at the same time. However, if a dead insect wants to lay a nest of eggs, the insect's body will be strongly deformed, but the observation of gem microscope denies this possibility.
The infrared spectrum test further proved our identification. Fourier infrared spectrum analysis of a small amount of powder carved on four samples (mainly because the samples are too large and small samples can be tested by normal gemmological methods) shows that they have almost the same infrared spectrum (attached figure), and their infrared spectra are almost identical to those of Barker resin in the standard spectrum, but completely different from those of amber. Among them, 3 078cm- 1 is caused by the C-H stretching vibration of phenyl (ring), and the corresponding bending vibration peak appears at l 644cm- 1. 2 93 1 cm- 1 and 2 868cm- 1 are caused by the stretching vibration of (C-H) saturated bonds, and the corresponding bending vibration absorption peaks are at l 454cm- 1 and l 384cm- 1. 1 700cm- 1 is mainly produced by the carbonyl stretching vibration of c = O. Different from the standard spectrum, the sample undergoes saponification reaction, which shows that 1574cm- 1 and1539 cm-/kloc-0 exist in the infrared spectrum. The infrared spectrum of amber is obviously different from that of Coba. The infrared spectrum of amber is relatively smooth, indicating that it has undergone a long geological process, and may have a large molecular weight, mainly composed of saturated C-H bonds, but lacks the stretching vibration absorption of unsaturated carbonyl groups. Conclusion Relevant information and the above evaluation cases at least make us understand the following questions:
1. Copa resin in New Zealand existed in large quantities in the market in history, which should arouse our attention to this resin. Even some antique "amber" may still be Copa resin with a short formation time, rather than real amber;
2. Although the inclusion of animals or plants can provide many meaningful references for the identification of amber, for example, its morphological characteristics can tell us whether it is an imitation or not, whether it has been artificially suppressed or not, but the inclusion itself is not absolutely meaningful for the identification of amber;
3. Alcohol is indeed a very sensitive, cheap and convenient reagent for distinguishing amber from Barker resin. However, it is best to gently wipe the water droplets in an inconspicuous place as far as possible, otherwise the surface of the sample will become opaque. Therefore, special care should be taken when using this method to identify finished products;
4. The determination of general physical constants such as density, refractive index and fluorescence has no obvious effect on distinguishing amber from Barker imitation;
5. Infrared spectrum is a very useful method to accurately distinguish amber from Barker resin.
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