How to distinguish natural amber from a fake. How to identify natural amber

Amber is the oldest gemstone known to man. It is widely used in the manufacture of jewelry and other luxury items. Fossilized resin, formed millions of years ago, captivates with its warm honey hue and mysterious inclusions. The most expensive specimens contain frozen insects or other foreign particles inside.

Organic stone is mined in large volumes in Russia. However, this does not protect compatriots from unscrupulous sellers. Seeming, at first glance, ideal amber, not all connoisseurs of beauty know how to distinguish it from a fake. At the same time, modern technologies for simulating natural stone have reached such a level that they can mislead many. Some knowledge in this area will not be among those.

Natural amber is often replaced with different materials. It is important to familiarize yourself with some of their properties in order to know how to distinguish a fake.

Artificial amber can also be made from casein, polyester, burnite, bakelite, ambroide, acrylic, polyburn, celluloid or faturan. However, despite the skill of jewelers, it is quite possible to distinguish a genuine stone.

Verification methods

There are several reliable ways to distinguish natural amber from a fake. In each of them, a significant role is played by the unique physical and chemical properties of the original stone. Substitutes either do not have these qualities, or exhibit them in much smaller quantities.

For example, real stones are characterized by low thermal conductivity. At tactile contact, amber is warm, glass is not. The hardness of fake stone is also higher than natural. You can even feel it with your fingers. Copal and kauri, on the other hand, have a softer texture.

So, how to distinguish amber:

1. It is important to conduct a visual inspection. The extraordinary structure of natural stone is its "calling card". Microcracks, inclusions, heterogeneous structure testify to its natural origin. At the same time, the product made of glass is characterized by increased transparency, a play of light. Plastic objects exhibit similar properties to a lesser extent.
   Previously, the presence of insects or other fragments was considered the main distinguishing feature of authenticity. Now technological progress allows you to place any elements inside the product. It is extremely difficult to assess their ancient origin. In addition, it is appropriate to pay attention to the air bubbles inside. Their spherical shape defines the stone as natural. Elongated bubbles demonstrate a lower density of the material - this is a clear fake.
2. Take into account the characteristics of the aroma. The smell of the original stone intensifies with heat, for example, due to friction. You can also put a red-hot needle on its less noticeable area. Such manipulations will show the aroma of rosin (a mixture of needles and cloves).
3. Check electrostatic properties. Among the main qualities of amber is the ability to attract villi and small pieces of paper after intense friction. Plastic in our time can also be electrified, however, not with such force. Other types of resins do not show such properties.
4. The action of an ultraviolet lamp will help to distinguish natural amber from a fake. The transparent stone luminesces blue with different intensity. More cloudy, smoky specimens, under the influence of ultraviolet light, sparkle with pale blue tints. The bone-like appearance of the stone luminesces milky white with a slight blue tint.

It is important to use all of the above testing methods in combination. Then the probability of obtaining an accurate result is high.

Decisive Methods

To make sure the quality of a product made of precious stone, you need to know all the ways to determine the naturalness of amber - how to distinguish it from a fake. Some of them can only be done at home. One extreme method is to scratch the inconspicuous side. At the same time, true amber will begin to crumble a little at the site of impact, artificial amber will not. Glass cannot be damaged with a weak movement, and the plastic will twist into elastic chips.

The next way to identify natural amber is to expose it to a solvent or alcohol. These substances do not affect the surface of a genuine stone during a short procedure. It takes 3-5 seconds to recognize a fake. After the time has elapsed, the solution must be washed off. Otherwise, the natural surface may become stained. Fake amber will become sticky at the site of application. There may be changes in color, the acquisition of a matte shade or roughness. These reagents do not affect glass products.

To verify the authenticity of amber by the third method, you need 0.5 liters. water dilute 100 gr. salt. A stone placed in such a liquid will slowly sink. The depth of immersion of amber depends on the saturation of the saline solution. At very high density, it will remain on the surface. Imitation of glass will quickly rush to the bottom, as well as plastic. Copal will remain floating on the surface. This method is considered ineffective. In addition, it can rarely be used to determine the authenticity of amber, since the stone is often set in jewelry.

Reminders before buying

Jewelry with fake stones is often sold as expensive. At the same time, not only small products are faked. It will not be possible to check amber in the store in all possible ways. However, you can ask the seller to demonstrate the reaction of the stone to the ultraviolet glow of the counterfeit bill detector. It is necessary to carefully examine the product, analyze its ability to electrify, feel the aroma.

Before checking the naturalness of an item, it is appropriate to seek advice from the seller. In a store with a positive reputation, they will gladly agree to inform and demonstrate in practice how to distinguish real amber. Conscientious workers are proud of the opportunity to demonstrate in practice how to determine the authenticity of the sold amber.

Sunstone has been known to mankind since ancient times. Beautiful and unique amber, how to distinguish this stone from a fake, and what properties does it have? Surprisingly, by studying the history of the gem, you can learn a lot about what happened on our planet millions of years ago.

History and description

For a long time, people could not explain the origin of the gem. Legends were made about its appearance, calling the stone either particles of a heavenly body, or tears of a sea princess. Later, scientists found out that amber is the hardened resin of pine trees that has lain in water for millions of years. That is why gems often contain particles of ancient plants, animals and even whole insects that inhabited our planet in the prehistoric period. These fragments from the past, in turn, helped establish the age of the amber itself.

The stone consists of such organic acids as:

• carbon, which accounts for 80% of the composition;
• hydrogen;
• oxygen.

Often, stones contain impurities of various chemicals that affect their structure and color.

The word amber in most people is associated with a yellow-orange color. However, before you determine the authenticity of amber, you should know that in fact the color scheme of the gem is diverse. There is red, green, white and even black amber. But most of all, a transparent wax-colored stone with a slight red tint is valued. Such specimens are mined in the Baltic Sea.

How to recognize a real stone

Sun stone jewelry has not lost its popularity for many centuries. When you come to the store, you can buy inexpensive beads or an amber bracelet, but some jewelry manufacturers deliberately pass off a fake as a natural gem.

Previously, to create an artificial gem, small pieces and waste of amber were used, pressing them together. It cannot be said that the new product turned out to be completely fake, but such a specimen was not a stone either. Today, plastic, glass, as well as fresh resin from coniferous trees are most often used for fake gems. If earlier it was easy to distinguish natural amber from a fake even with the naked eye, now the production of artificial products has reached such perfection that it is not so easy to recognize a true gem.

When buying, you need to consider the copy you like, since you can distinguish natural amber from a low-quality fake even with a close look. A real stone plays in the light, as if solar particles are hidden in it. It is rich in many unique patterns and iridescent shades. You should be alert for signs such as:

1. Suspiciously smooth and correct pattern on the array. Unscrupulous craftsmen often diligently cover ornamental specimens with geometrically verified patterns, forgetting that nature never repeats itself.
2. The presence of clots of paint and sparkles inside. They look beautiful, but they are not in real stone. In some copies of genuine amber, round air bubbles may occur. In fakes, they have an oval shape.
3. Too bright color. In pursuit of sunshine, scammers often paint fake stones in bright colors. Whereas the hallmark of a real gem is the dimness of color, but the richness of shades.

It is easy to check the authenticity of amber if you know its physical properties. Some experiments can be done right on the spot. Ornamental specimens smell pleasantly of the forest, while real gems have no smell, although they were formed from the resin of coniferous trees. Even massive amber beads weigh little, since the density of the stone is low. In addition, the gem is warm to the touch. If you rub amber on a piece of woolen cloth, it will become electrified.

With a certain degree of probability, we can say that the stone that attracts small pieces of paper to itself is real.

At home, it is worth subjecting the stone to water procedures. In a strong saline solution, a genuine gem will float, and a fake will go to the bottom. The solvent will not damage the real gem, but the paint will begin to peel off the ornamental stone. Under an ultraviolet lamp, amber acquires a blue tint.

Often, dry insects or plant particles are planted in imitation of amber. Inclusions from the past are indeed found in gems. However, for millions of years of their stay in stone, they seem transparent. In ornamental stones, insects are too fresh, and they freeze in beautiful poses. In addition, real stones with inclusions are very expensive.

What are fakes made from?

Sadly, most of the amber jewelry presented on the shelves of jewelry stores are not. The modern chemical industry is so well developed that artificially it is possible to create stones that imitate the sun gem. Since it can be difficult to distinguish real amber from ornamental stones, you should carefully read the information about the jewelry before buying, or ask the seller about it. The most common imitations of amber include:

1. Bernite. It consists of synthetic polyester resins that completely repeat the external properties of the gem, and a little amber chips. In the array of bernite, defects are specially created that give the fake a natural look. However, lately bernite fakes are so diverse that many jewelry companies make independent jewelry from artificial stone, painting it in colors that have nothing to do with amber.
2. Copal. By origin, it is similar to a precious gem. Only copal is the hardened resin not of pine trees, but of leguminous plants or southern conifers. And his age is small compared to his yellow counterpart - only 2-3 mil. years. Visually, copal is very similar to some varieties of solar gem. And if it is processed and some kind of insect is introduced, then the fake practically does not differ from natural amber.
3. Bakelite. This synthetic plastic is the brainchild of American chemist Leo Backland. However, he created a new substance not at all for the manufacture of jewelry fakes, but for use in industry. At the beginning of the XX century. German businessmen set up the production of artificial jewelry from Bakelite. There was no money left in the country, ruined after several military campaigns, and it was so easy and profitable to create jewelry from cheap material. The colorless plastic was only added to the desired color, and it began to shimmer with real amber hues.
4. Kauri. Another type of hardened resin. Only in this case, the resin of kauri trees native to New Zealand. Resin drip is used for the production of high-quality paints and varnishes. But as a jewelry stone, kauri resin was given a place only for fakes of precious amber.

Ornamental stones of antiquity

They learned to fake amber a long time ago. In the past, craftsmen made stones such as:

1. Polyburn. This chemical compound appeared after a successful attempt by German chemists to optimize the processing of natural amber and make it waste-free. The amber crumb left after the processing of the gem was mixed with epoxy resin, obtaining a new inexpensive artificial stone. In the middle of the XX century. production of jewelry made of polyburn reached its peak, but then declined due to poor quality products.
2. Faturan. What German chemists failed to do was successfully implemented by Eastern masters 2 centuries earlier. They mixed amber shavings and dust with vegetable resins. The result was an artificial stone of a delightful copper-red color. The forgery gained such popularity among the nobility that it was even used as money. However, the original recipe for producing Faturan has been lost. And all modern attempts to recreate the copper-red stone are just a fake of the historical faturan, which itself was once created to replace valuable amber.
3. Ambroid. The history of the production of another fake, which was called ambroide, dates back to the times of Ancient Rome. The Romans heated and pressed soft fragments of natural stone, obtaining a substance that could hardly be distinguished from natural amber. In later times the technology has been improved. During Soviet times, the production of ambroide reached a new level. The ornamental stone was made so high quality that it received the status of reduced grade amber. It is distinguished from a real gem only by slightly elongated air bubbles inside.

Modern materials

The industry does not stand still. Today, the solar gem is forged from the most unexpected materials: celluloid, acrylic, polyester, and even milk protein. Acrylic is organic glass. Beads and bracelets from it are too bright and do not look like a real gem at all. However, acrylic jewelry, which is passed off as natural stone, is actively sold through catalogs and the Internet, since it is impossible to distinguish amber from a fake from a photograph. The stones look exemplarily correct. Often, scammers fake the whole piece of jewelry, copying the frame and other decorative elements.

There are cases of falsification of even expensive designer jewelry.

Polyester for industrial purposes is mined in huge quantities. Fortunately, it is still rarely used to fake amber, although artificial stones turn out to be very similar to real ones. A fake is given out only by defects in natural stone, which look rough and overly catchy. However, in the hands of a talented craftsman, "amber" made of polyester may well be similar to a natural specimen. In addition, to create a really similar stone, expensive reagents and thermal installations are required, which is already becoming economically unprofitable.

Another ornamental material, casein, is a formaldehyde-treated milk protein. As a result, an artificial resin is formed, from which imitations of a wide variety of natural materials can be obtained. At one time, mother-of-pearl buttons, ivory-like products, and horn combs were made from casein. With the help of various dyes, craftsmen imitated a variety of shades of amber. Particularly successful specimens really looked like a genuine gem. Today, casein is not used in industrial production, but some jewelry workshops still use this substance to create products under the guise of amber.

You can calculate a fake by touch: casein is colder and much heavier.

Celluloid was invented in the middle of the 19th century. At first, chemists planned to use the new material to replace expensive ivory. Later, celluloid was actively used to create decorative items imitating amber. Beautiful elements of cutlery were made from it, household products were trimmed. Celluloid stones differ from real ones in a bright color that does not occur in nature. Today, the material is used little, as it is extremely flammable.

In this article - about pressed amber in more detail - jewelry with such amber can be found in jewelry stores.

Small amber, accounting for almost 90% of the total amber production, :

• uncontaminated, pure amber - for pressing,
• the rest - for chemical processing.

Pressed amber, or ambroid, along with natural amber, is widely used in the jewelry and stone-cutting industries. They use it both for jewelry and in technology - they make different types of insulators.

Amber is of different types:

1. Natural amber . by color Natural amber ranges from acacia honey yellow (Baltic amber) to reddish brown and dark cherry brown (Burmese amber).

2. Pressed amber (or ambroid) is essentially also natural amber, but ground into powder and heated without air, then it is placed in a special press and under pressure and at high temperature it turns into a viscous mass. By placing this mass in a special form, you can get various products of different shapes. Sometimes in this case, amber is given a different color by adding various dyes to the molten mass. Such amber becomes more cloudy, loses its transparency and the unique ability of natural amber to play with light. It is valued less than usual, but it is more widely represented on the market.

The selection of natural amber of different shades and degree of turbidity and the addition of dyes in combination with special pressure modes make it possible to obtain amber products of different color and structure.

3. Copal is young amber. Under the "amber" understand the resin hardened millions of years ago. Kopal was formed a maximum of several tens of thousands of years ago. The composition of such amber is no different from its older brother, the usual amber, but with certain knowledge such amber can also be obtained from the resin of modern trees. Such "new amber" will be less durable than natural ancient amber, this affects the service life. Therefore, buying amber from hand is dangerous. Copal can be distinguished from natural amber by dropping a drop of alcohol or acetone on it. If the surface is sticky or there is a stain left, then it is dug. Natural resin, or copal, is often used to imitate amber, but it often has a cracked surface that is not typical of amber.

The so-called ennobled amber has been used in jewelry since ancient times. Amber was boiled in honey to produce a reddish color, but this often resulted in a fine network of cracks. For clarification, amber is boiled in vegetable oil, and for coloring, organic dyes are added to the oil.

By heat treatment of high grades of natural or pressed amber in a hot oven at a temperature of 220 ° C for 1.5-2 hours, followed by cooling under an asbestos sheet on calcined sand, sparkling amber is obtained. Such amber, containing small fan-shaped cracks that create an additional beautiful play of stone, is considered the most valuable and is usually inserted into gold items.

The amber products obtained as a result of processing find the most diverse application. Amber was used to make magnifying glasses, loupes, glasses for glasses, lenses for microscopes. Amber oil is used to make amber lacquer, which was used to rip the instruments of such great masters as Amati and Stradivari. Wood (for example, railway sleepers) is impregnated with amber oil to prevent decay.

Fused amber, or amber rosin(almost 65% of all processed amber raw materials) is used to obtain varnishes in the canning industry, to cover electrical wires, furniture, floors, musical instruments, etc.

Amber varnishes are better than all other varnishes in terms of strength and brilliance.

Succinic acid and its salts are used in pharmacology, perfumery, color photography, in the manufacture of leather substitutes, dyes, as a biogenic stimulant in agriculture, etc.

Pressed amber It is used as insulators in the electrical industry and instrument making, for the manufacture of medical utensils, instruments and instruments for transfusion and blood preservation, which is associated with the negligible wettability of amber, its ability to prevent hemolysis (the process of destruction of blood cells).

A number of methods for the manufacture of pressed amber are known.

• According to the Spillers method small pieces of amber fill a flat steel mold with a tightly fitting lid, which is placed in hot glycerin or paraffin under a pressure of 40-50 MPa.
• According to the Trebitsch method a hollow steel cylinder is inserted into a cylindrical mold filled with amber, on which the press presses. There are small holes in the bottom of the cylinder through which amber is squeezed out during pressing. In the hollow cylinder there is a movable weight adjusted to its diameter, which puts pressure on the jets of softened amber that have penetrated into the holes and contributes to their better pressing out.

At the Kaliningrad Amber Plant, pressing is carried out mainly at a temperature of 230-250 °C and a pressure of 0.26 MPa.

How to distinguish
pressed amber from natural

The density, hardness, brittleness and refractive index of pressed amber are usually similar to natural amber (the latter sometimes rises to 1.65).

The difference is the following: in polarized light, pressed amber behaves like an aggregate and softens under the influence of ether.

Although pressed amber is very similar in appearance and physical properties to natural amber, it is easily distinguished by the altered shape of the included bubbles, the general nature of the flow structure, and the interference colors that are no longer evenly distributed over the entire field, but as if composed of contrasting pieces(like a patchwork quilt). Flow structures in pressed amber can be straight, curved, helical (such as striae), sometimes there are balls of a dense ground mass, small clots of dye.

Unlike natural amber, such amber softens under the influence of ether: if the surface of pressed amber is moistened with cotton wool with ether, it becomes sticky (unlike natural amber, which does not have this).

In general, pressed amber is visible even to the eye - the stone consists, as it were, of different pieces, like a patchwork quilt, as has already been said. BUT - progress does not stand still, methods of imitation of stones are constantly being improved. In addition, special dyes are added to pressed amber, which makes pieces of amber of different colors more or less the same with each other. So it can be hard to tell the difference.

Various plastics (bakelite, bernat and others) are also used as imitations of amber. Amber differs from them in lower density and blue luminescence in ultraviolet rays.

Professionals usually look for the difference between pressed amber and natural amber using a microscope.

How to distinguish
natural amber from synthetic resins

1. If you set fire to amber, there should be a pleasant smell, similar to the aroma of incense in the church. It smells like natural tree pine resin. In extreme cases, there may be no smell. If it is artificial amber, you will see dark smoke and smell of burnt rubber.

2. Another blasphemous, but effective method - run a non-sharp knife over the surface of amber. Natural stone will give small crumbs, and imitation will spin with chips.

3. Natural amber tends to float in salt water. Pour into a glass of water, add 2-3 tablespoons of salt and dip a piece of amber (if it is rimless). If the stone went to the bottom, then you are holding a fake in your hands.

Many professionals point out that the top layer of plastic can be scraped off with a knife, while amber breaks into fragments. But such a check is both difficult and impractical - the stone will be damaged.

If you buy amber in the markets, wrecks, offer the seller at the counter to do at least one of these methods. If he is very indignant and does not get a glass of salt water, a knife or matches, you can move away from his counter. :-) Unfortunately, all these methods are applicable only if you are going to buy amber in pieces; if you buy jewelry, then such requests, of course, are completely inappropriate, and the seller has the right to be indignant. :-))

How to distinguish natural amber? Identification of amber. How to distinguish natural amber from a fake?
If there is a demand, then it must be satisfied. For modern business, this is the law. Do you want an amber necklace made of a beautiful yellow stone? Please! If you cannot afford a necklace, we will be able to find a cheaper option for you - just buy it!

The realities of the amber market are such that anyone who wants to buy jewelry made of precious fossilized oleoresin can afford it - regardless of the level of material wealth. However, being at the counter, you should remember: the cheaper amber and jewelry made from it, the more likely it is to buy a fake. Especially if the trade is going somewhere in the underpass.

Alas! The market is full of fake gems! Some artificial resins very realistically mimic the color and texture of natural amber. When buying jewelry made from fossil stone, an uninformed buyer often runs the risk of being, if not deceived, then deluded.

Some people mistakenly believe that in an antique shop the chance to buy fake amber is reduced to zero. This thought is wrong! Forgeries have existed before. Artificial amber was made from bakelite, casein, polyester and epoxy resins, mixed in different proportions. Other materials are also used, which have nothing to do with amber.

How to be in such a situation? How to distinguish true amber from a fake?
Knowing some tricks and tricks, you can easily determine the authenticity of amber. The main assistant in this case is the “culprit of the investigation” himself – amber with its unique and inimitable physical and chemical properties.

Here are a few methods that will help you distinguish a true gem from an imitation. Each of these methods is based on the specific properties of amber.

Appearance
Often fakes have clearly visible multiple inclusions of air bubbles, easily visible to the naked eye.

The densely packed so-called “glitters” in the thickness of the stone (other than round bubbles) can speak of both a fake (burnite material) and natural calcined amber.

Uniform - without color transitions and without any textures - the color of amber beads should alert the buyer. Craftsmen, however, harp fakes with a characteristic amber texture! Bakelite beads, for example, have a well-directed layered pattern, most often oriented along the thread hole.

Natural amber, especially one that has not been refined by heat treatment, looks richer than fake. Natural stone has an interesting color with chaotic transitions of shades from one to another. Its array is always endowed with a unique pattern, characteristic of amber of natural origin.

Weight
Amber is a gem of organic origin. Its density is low. Large beads made of natural amber (with a total weight of 70 - 80 grams) look very impressive. Fakes made of plastic and glass, having a high density, are modest in size - but weigh a lot.

Amber is warm to the touch, as it has a low thermal conductivity - unlike glass, which has a much higher thermal conductivity.

Amber hardness test
The density of amber on the Mohs scale is 2.0 - 2.5. This means that it cannot be scratched with a fingernail. But copal - amber-like legume resin - on the contrary, is easily damaged by the same nail. Its hardness is only 1.5 Mohs. Glass is noticeably harder than amber: this difference is felt even with your fingers.

scratch test
With the tip of a knife or razor, scratch in an inconspicuous place. Real amber will crumble into small fragments that can be ground into powder. The plastic will leave elastic chips. The glass won't get scratched.

Swimming amber in salt water, or the so-called "water procedures"
Natural amber in most cases floats in salt water and sinks in fresh water. The density of amber, according to sources, is 1.05 - 1.09, maximum 1.3 g / cm. The maximum density of saline water is 1.1972. Purely theoretically, it turns out that some samples of amber may still be denser than saline. In this case, they will drown. If there is a suspicion that the test sample is still natural, it is worth checking it in other ways.

Attention! The test with floating amber in salt water is not possible if the amber is set in metal or decorated with heavy decorative elements made of other materials.

How to prepare a solution? Dilute 8-10 teaspoons of table salt in a glass of water. If you need more water, make a supersaturated solution (with undissolved salt crystals at the bottom of the vessel).

Natural amber should float in salt water. Counterfeits will drown in such a solution.

This test will detect glass, bakelite, celluloid, imitation epoxy and burnite. But it won't help you identify copal and pressed amber.

After the experiment, the amber must be washed with fresh water and dried.

Electrostatic charging
If natural amber is intensively rubbed against wool or silk, it becomes negatively charged. This property can be tested by applying electrified amber to small pieces of paper. They should rush to the surface of amber or stick.

Some types of plastics have a similar property. But in amber it is more pronounced. The electrostatic method makes it possible to identify fakes in which the properties of electrization are completely absent. Copal (sold under the guise of “young” or “immature” amber) does not become electrified when rubbed.

Smell when rubbing and burning
Vigorous rubbing of amber against a fabric or palm until the temperature of the stone rises significantly helps to feel a faint resinous aroma, reminiscent of the smell of pine or turpentine. If you do the same with copal, it will soften and its surface will become sticky. Any synthetic will give itself out as a pungent chemical smell.

If you apply the red-hot tip of the needle to the surface of amber, white smoke with a characteristic rosin smell will appear. The aroma of rosin is strong enough to tell if you are holding plastic or real amber. However, different amber has differences in shades of smell. All varieties of amber are united by a pleasant, slightly sour resinous aroma. Synthetics in such an experiment will melt faster, giving a chemical, unpleasant smell.

Is it possible to set fire to amber? Here is what you should see if the stone is natural.

Amber begins to catch fire approximately three seconds after contact with fire. If you hold it on fire for a second or two longer, and then take it away from the flame, it will continue to burn on its own, quite intensively. Amber boils in the hearth of burning. Amber smoke is black - that is, when burned, amber smokes. As soon as you extinguish the burning amber, the remainder of the smoke emitted by the heated fragment will amaze you with the purity of its whiteness.

Solvent test
Amber is relatively resistant to alcohol and solvents - while almost all plastics are destroyed by contact with acetone. Acetone or nail polish remover can damage plastic imitations by discoloring them or creating a rough, matte surface at the point of contact.

By placing a drop of ether, solvent or 95% ethanol on the surface of amber, you will not see any reactions. Real amber will not disintegrate and will not become sticky.

Otherwise pressed amber will behave. If you rub pressed amber with a cloth soaked in ether, the surface of the stone will become sticky. Some plastics do not react with alcohol but dissolve in acetone. Glass fakes do not react with any of these reagents. But copal will be hopelessly spoiled by any reagent!

On a note! Do not get carried away with chemical experiments with the front side of amber jewelry. With prolonged exposure to reagents, stains may remain on natural amber. Usually 3-5 seconds are enough to recognize a fake.

light, luminescence
In the light of an ultraviolet lamp, amber luminesces to one degree or another. In transparent samples, a bluish glow of varying intensity is visible. With a decrease in the transparency of the stone, the effect of the glow weakens. Smoky translucent amber luminesces in pale blue.

Under the action of ultraviolet, the structure of undulating amber deposits, banding, and transitions due to various degrees of turbidity are clearly visible. "Cloud" and "bone" amber glow milky white with a faint bluish tint. Raw amber with the so-called sugar crust luminesces in brown tones.

Synthetic resin based on Bakelite is inert in ultraviolet rays, casein imitations glow yellow.

Finally...
When buying amber jewelry in a store, you will not always have the opportunity to do the above manipulations. The seller simply will not allow you to spoil the jewelry with a red-hot needle or a sharp metal edge.

However, nothing will prevent you from examining the amber jewelry in detail! If the seller has a counterfeit bill detector, ask him to check the amber for luminescence. A respectable merchant should not refuse you.

Common sense and a bit of theory will help you understand the situation. The chance of buying a fake will be reduced to a minimum.

Read about all kinds of fakes and imitations of natural amber in the detailed illustrated article "Varieties of imitations of amber"

Amber jewelry is very popular among the fair sex and among men who believe in its healing and magical properties. They are not expensive and will never go out of fashion.
But how not to be deceived when choosing a product? How not to stumble upon a fake and distinguish it from the original? There are several ways that you can resort to both at home and in the store.
It must be remembered that amber is a fossil stone, fossilized resin and has certain characteristics and properties.

How to distinguish amber from a fake:

- Cheap resin fakes

The most commonly used material in amber counterfeiting.
First of all, a fake from cheap resins gives out a smell - this is a light forest aroma. Real amber has no smell!
The second clear sign of such a fake is that the resins are softer, unlike amber. Just run a sharp object, such as a needle or fingernail, over the surface of the stone. If there is a trace, a small scratch - you have a fake in front of you.
Use a magnifying glass. In a fake made of pressed resin, you can see clots of colorants and accumulation of air in the form of long bubbles, and not spherical, as real amber is supposed to be.

- Copal fakes

Copal is a hardened resin, akin to amber, but does not contain succinic acid.
Fragrance can give out a fake. If you put copal on a hot surface, it will begin to melt and give off a medicinal smell, while heated amber resembles the scent of cloves.
Remember that amber is capable of accumulating a static charge. If you rub a piece of stone, for example, on clothes, it will become electrified, but copal does not have such properties.
Acetone or alcohol will help you identify a fake. When they hit the surface of the copal, they leave stains and make it sticky. But amber is not subject to their influence.

- Fake glass

A copper needle will help to distinguish a fake glass product. It is necessary to hold it on the surface of the stone. If the stone is real, a slightly noticeable mark will remain on it, but the needle is not terrible for a glass fake.

If you are afraid of ruining a natural stone by leaving scratches, there is a safer way.
Mix three tablespoons of table salt in a glass of water and lower the stone into it. The density of natural stone and its resin fakes is lower than the density of water, so they will not sink. While heavy glass items sink to the bottom of the glass. After such an experiment, the amber should be washed so that its surface is not spoiled by the salt raster and covered with a crust.

- Plastic fakes

No less rare to find on store shelves. It is very easy to define it.
The density of plastic jewelry is higher than the density of amber. Therefore, if you pick off a piece in an inconspicuous place, the plastic will begin to peel off, chips will appear, but real amber will crumble.

- Pressed amber

It is easiest to confuse real amber with its pressed fakes - ambroids. Ambroid is a small fraction of amber, so its physical properties and appearance are very similar to natural stone. But still there are a few differences.
Look carefully at the color of the product. It has an uneven color, as if it consists of several pieces. The color of amber, on the contrary, is uniform and uniform.
Upon closer examination of pressed amber, one can notice a wavy structure that occurs as a result of the impact of the press.

If these two methods did not help, there is another correct option. Drop ether on the surface of the stone - the fake stone will become sticky, but the natural stone will not change its properties.

Ultraviolet light will help determine the naturalness of the stone. Natural amber, when translucent, gives a delicate blue color, but its fakes are milky.
Sellers of amber products resort to very sophisticated ways to hide a fake from the eyes of the buyer. Inside it they put an insect. But here there is one little trick. In an insect that naturally fell into a stone, the wings are spread, as it tried to escape, but those artificially placed in a fake have folded wings.