Pay attention to three points when purchasing coral: First, the color should be uniform; Second, the color should be bright red; The redder, the more precious; Third, the heavier the coral, the better.

The appearance of coral is completely different from that of pearls with similar colors. The luster of pearls has certain directionality, and when magnified at low magnification, it presents a pattern very similar to flame. The white rosary carved on the pearl shell can be identified by the parallel growth structure on the shell and its pink zoning trend.

Another remarkable feature of coral is that it has small and shallow circular pits, which are the growth parts of a single coral. Small pits caused by some perforated marine life can also exist.

The main substitutes of imitation coral are celluloid, wood and sealing wax, all of which have no unique appearance of coral. When celluloid is heated, it will smell of camphor. You can scrape the wood with your nails to expose the wooden structure under the artificial surface. The sealing wax has a flowing glass-like appearance under a magnifying glass. If necessary, hydrochloric acid can be used to identify these substitutes, because they will not react with hydrochloric acid. On the contrary, coral, pearl oyster and pearl oyster all react with hydrochloric acid.

Because of the low yield and high value of red coral, people often dye low-priced white coral red to pretend to be natural red coral. To identify the above fake red coral, you can wipe off the dye with a cotton swab dipped in acetone. Due to the monotonous and dull color of the artificially dyed fake, with a magnifying glass of 10 times, it can be seen that the dye is concentrated in the small cracks and particles of coral, and its red color is deep outside and light inside, showing uneven coloring.

This defect.

Distinguishing a dyed coral depends on its dyeing degree. For dyed people, the luster is not soft and unnatural, too enchanting, and red has no layers. But the real red coral is candle red, red is layered, and some are still red and white, with a faint "fingerprint" in the middle (the texture of calcium-containing coral is similar to human fingerprints), which is very different from dyed imitations.

It's not smooth or fake, but red coral is a national first-class protected animal, and it is not allowed to be sold without a license issued by the state, so 99% of businesses without a license don't sell real red coral in Taiwan Province Province. You should distinguish carefully and beware of being fooled.

Coral branches are not solid either.