Category: Gem or Scam? Library
Names of minerals and gemstones
Research
Consequences of Scammite
Gilson opal
A name for a synthetic man-made opal designed to mimic the appearance of natural precious opal as good as possible. Gilson opal was developed by…
African bloodstone
Commercial name for a green-gray chalcedony with delineated pieces of red jasper and light gray chalcedony, often combined with speckles of pyrite. The stone consists…
Analysis: apatite in cleavelandite or not?
By now there are a lot of stones on the market with blue spots, under a lot of different names. One name that has recently…
Strawberry quartz
Commercial name for red- to pink-colored quartz with hematite inclusions or man-made glass. Originally, this name was used in the 19th century for quartz with…
Afghanistan/Afghan jade
Misleading commercial name for the mineral bowenite, a variety of antigorite, a mineral from the serpentine group. So it is not jade, but is sold…
African jade
Misleading commercial name for a massive variety of grossular, a green mineral from the garnet group. Named for its occurrence in Africa and used as…