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Facts
COLOR
Amber
comes in many beautiful shades of color. The primary colors of Dominican Amber are clear
gold, red, blue and green. Blue and green are the rarer of the four and unusual colors
like clear gray are extremely rare.
SIZE
Most amber nuggets are 1/2 to 1 inch in
size. Any nuggets that are larger than 30mm (1 inch) are classified as select nuggets.
Only 5% to 6% of the amber found is larger than 1 inch.
FOSSILS
Fossils are usually small perfectly
preserved prehistoric insects or plants that were entrapped by the resin of the extinct
Hymenaea trees 20 to 30 million years ago! In general, any complete fossil found in amber
is rare. The larger and/or rarer the fossil is, the more valuable it becomes
to the scientist and private collector.
There has been a
lot of excitement about DNA being extracted from amber fossils, which of course was the
basis for the book and movie Jurassic Park. Recently there was even a study where a 35
million year old bacteria cell was extracted and grown in a culture dish!
FLORESCENCE
High quality Dominican amber will have a
soft florescence in natural sunlight or if you backlight it with a flashlight or lamp.
Backlighting is also useful if you are exploring a nugget for fossils with a 10x loop.
Under a UV Light (black light) Amber will fluoresce a soft blue green color.
CHARACTERISTICS
Amber is the lightest gem in
the world. Amber (resin) and diamonds (carbon) are the only gems made from organic matter.
Amber can shatter or crack if dropped. Melting point: 380°C, Hardness: 2-3 on Moh’s
scale (diamonds are 10), Specific gravity: 1.04-1.10, UV light (black light): usually a
distinct blue/green color.
REFERENCES
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- Life in Amber
George O. Poinar, Jr. Stanford University Press
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- AMBER
Helen Fraquet Butterworth Gem Books
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- AMBER The Golden Gem of the
Ages
Patty C. Rice, Ph.D. The Kosciuszko Foundation, Inc.
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