Amber - is one of the most beautiful natural forming compounds in the world. There are many different types of Amber that are found and used today. Most of the Amber that is sold is called Succinite. This type of Amber is mainly found in Northern Europe and is golden brown in color and hard in substance. The hues tend to be from yellowish honey to a gentle brown with gold in it to a dark brown. Amber is not a stone, actually it is fossilized resin. Amber is created by once living entities such as trees and other types of flora. Amber gradually forms and hardens over many millions of years. In fact, most of today’s Amber is from 30 to 90 millions old. Amber can usually be found in all parts of the world where there was once flora living millions of years ago. Amber in general has its biggest depositories in the Baltic region. Baltic Amber is found all along the Baltic and North seas from the north of Germany to Sambia, which is now part of Russia.
Copal- There is several types of copal from different geographic regions. Various tropical trees, such as Hymenaea courbaril or Hymenae protea, produce Colombian and Brazilian copal. Carbon14 tests undertaken on Colombian copal have shown it is about 250 years old. Columbia, South America has extensive deposits of copal. Madagascar and Kenya also have highly fossiliferous copal mines. Copal from East Africa was possibly produced by the Trachylobium verrucasum, while Kauri copal from New Zealand was produced by the Kauri pine. Sierra Leone and Congo copal are both from a leguminous tree. Manila copal, produced by trees in the genus Agathis, is found in Indonesia and the Philippines. Dammar resin produced by dipterocarpaceous trees in southern Asia, i.e., Malaya and Sumatra. Major deposits of copal are produced from tropical legume and araucarian trees and are found in tropical or wet temperate regions where these resin producing trees still exist. Mohs scale hardness 1.5 - 2.5
Amber is an ancient biological gem material. One of the earliest examples of worked amber are beads from Gough’s cave in southern England, dated 11 000–9000 BC.
Amber Treatments :-
Heated in oil to improve clarity, disc-like fractures: "sun spangles". Heated in nitrogen-rich atmosphere to create a darker shallow surface coloration. At darker color, higher RI, lower and darker fluorescence: LW - inert to weak yellowish-orange to dark brownish-orange. Magnification: clouds of tiny gas bubbles below surface. Coloration may fade with prolonged exposure to sunlight. Green color may be created by heat-treatment in autoclave.
Reconstructed small amber pieces warmed and compressed together: immersion in alcohol reveals hazy outline and different hue of individual pieces, elongated and flattened gas bubbles. LW: strong patchy chalky blue - Blue Chart Gem Identification, Herve Nicolas Lazzarelli, 2010, p 7
colour:- Yellow, white, red, green, blue, brown, black
Significant Gem Localities:-
Burma (Myanmar)->Kachin State->Myitkyina District->Hukawng Valley
Dominican Republic->Santiago Province->Cordillera Septentrional
Italy->Sicily
Peru->Amazonas Department->Santiago river Amber occurrence
Russia->North-Western Region->Kaliningradskaya
Oblast->Yantarny (Jantarny; Palmnicken)->Primorskoe (Pal'mnickenskoe) amber deposit
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