Banded agate
Designation for reddish-brown agate with black and/or white bands, used particularly for the recently marketed polished stones from Madagascar. These large hand stones or “jumbo”…
Category: Gem or Scam? Library
Avalonite (™)
Used as a commercial name for a blue-violet banded variety of chalcedony. Also called blue lace agate or simply chalcedony. Judy Hall1 and Hans Timmers2…
Bastite
The name bastite is primarily used in the trade for a fuchsite-containing chert from Western Australia, also known by the trade names Dragon Stone or…
Aventurine
Aventurine is officially a quartz variety with inclusions of a mica variety or hematite, but it has become a general commercial term or name used…
Beige moonstone
Commercial name for a beige-colored, unspecified alkali feldspar with a form of ‘flash’ or pearly luster. Sometimes this is ‘true’ moonstone, but in many cases…
Scammite
Translated from the Dutch word “Belazeriet”, a cynical term by Rolf Egberink introduced in 2018 for minerals, rocks, gemstones or crystals that: are entirely man-made…
Aventurine glass
Ancient trade name and synonym for goldstone, a man-made glittering glass, sometimes sold as a natural ‘gem’ material. This ancient name for goldstone comes from…
Fordite
Fordite (also known as Detroit Agate or Motor Agate) is not an agate or mineral at all! It consists of old automotive paint layers that…
Azeztulite™
Registered commercial name for initially only lower quality white quartz and/or quartzite that can be sold expensively this way. The name was coined by Naisha…
Cacoxenite (in quartz/amethyst)
Cacoxenite is an official mineral name for a secondary mineral found in oxidized zones of particularly phosphate-rich rocks. Almost always as small spherical aggregates of…
