Sesame jasper
Misleading commercial name for a light-colored with black speckled rock, which also contains grayish-white grains of quartz. In any case, it is not jasper, but…
Category: Gem or Scam? Library
Silver eye (serpentine)
Commercial name for serpentine with chrysotile (a fibrous mineral from the asbestos group). Sometimes also offered as Zebra jasper, but usually the latter refers to…
Zincite
Official mineral name for a natural zinc oxide. Unfortunately, most zincite crystals on the market are synthetic, that is, man-made in a laboratory. In Judy…
Shamanite™
Unregistered commercial name for black limestone with fossils, with a similar description to Master Shamanite™. Charles Mark and Terry Schiefer registered the name Shamanite™ on…
Sun Stone
Trade name for a variety of feldspar (usually from microcline or oligoclase, rarer from labradorite) with an orange/brown Schiller effect. The color is usually caused…
Sun stone-stalactite / solar quartz
Misleading fancy commercial name for quartz that has grown outward from a core, also known as quartz stalactites. Often offered in cut and polished slices…
Black amber
Misleading synonym and trade term for jet (also called gagate). Jet is not amber (fossilized resin), but an organic mineraloid originated from fossil wood. It…
Shangaan amethyst
Commercial local name for amethyst from Mateke in Gezani Communal Land, Zimbabwe. The amethyst crystals are often a mixed form with clear quartz and/or smoky…
Shungite
Name for a black, shiny, mineraloid: a solid in a rock that has no ordered crystal structure (so-called amorphous structure). The term shungite was originally…
Black amethyst
Trade name for a very dark, gray or smoky, amethyst. Sometimes it is a combination of smoky quartz and amethyst, but usually the color is…
