Dandelion Zeolite
Commercial fantasy name for an artificially manufactured material marketed as unique zeolites or other minerals. In reality, these are sphere-shaped needles of fiberglass attached to…
Category: Gem or Scam? Library
Sunset quartz
Commercial name for clear quartz (rock crystal) with red hematite phantoms from India. This name refers to the striking phenomenon of reddish-brown “shadow” layers (phantoms)…
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…
Heinekenite
Commercial (and comical) name for green glass. The name heinekenite occasionally pops up in collecting circles and online forums as a playful designation for green…
Surfite
Commercial name for a colorful artificial material that for a number of years has been offered as cabochons, beads, ornaments or raw pieces, increasingly also…
Quartz, synthetic / lab-grown
Although the mineral quartz is one of the most common minerals on earth and is found in large quantities, synthetically manufactured quartz also exists. This…
Lonsdaleite (diamond)
The name lonsdaleite is an officially recognized mineral name for a rare form of carbon but is regularly used online and at trade shows for…
Peanut obsidian
Commercial name for orbicular perlite from Mexico, actually a “devitrified” obsidian, also known as red snowflake obsidian and also sold under the name Peanut Obsidian.…
Firefly quartz
Commercial name for quartz crystals containing petroleum inclusions, mainly from Madagascar. Under UV light, these petroleum inclusions exhibit a bright yellow-green to yellow-white fluorescence, reminiscent…
Imperial topaz
Commercial name for a natural brownish-yellow to orange-red variety of topaz, usually from Brazil. Topaz is a common, natural mineral with the chemical formula Alâ‚‚SiOâ‚„(F,OH)â‚‚.…
