Featured What is this??? Amber or something else... Please help ID

Hi guy,
Today I bought this beaded necklace because it looked unknown to me. Have never seen something like this, thought it might be some kind of wood?? but then back home it looks more like amber. It has spring ring clasp and some separation glass beads. It is UV reactive with the tint of amber but does not look like any amber I have seen. Please help me ID what material it is. Any suggestion is welcome. Thank you a lot!

 

It’s polished but raw amber. Not tumbled or smoothed.

 

Thank you, OBB! So it is amber indeed.

Can it be told where from? Baltic or not?

Here there is a lot of amber (and quite expensive) but it all looks like "normal" amber - egg yolk, cognac and everything in-between. This one I see for the first time with these black coloured "cracks" or "creases".

 

I have never seen it either. I wonder if it is something else. Did you do the float test?

 

I’ve seen amber lumps here with odd striations and inclusions.

 

And here I thought it looked like some sort of glazed nuts.....never saw amber look like this before either!!! STILL lots to learn here!!!

 

Nuts came to my mind as well; beads look quite tasty!

 

Thank you, guys! No, I didn't do the float test, thought you might have seen something like this. will do it later. Actually, I have a string of apparent raw amber that is UV reactive but did not pass the float test, it is very densely strung though and thus is relatively heavy.

Yes, like nuts but much lighter and also not uniform, each nugget is quite different from the other, while nuts are rather uniform. Thought it could be some pieces of wood or something alike. It is absolutely opaque. And why is it strung with these glass beads?!

Is wood UV reactive? I think I have somewhere a wooden bead necklace, will try and find it to see if it has the same glow and tint.
No, wood is not UV reactive, at least the wood I have. This thing has the same UV reaction as the rest of my amber,

 

Thank you, OBB, at close look it does look like amber. And I think amber can be opaque, too.

 

Can it be copal??? Something like this:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/131338...7ef23eaa05b9483dec02eb62552a6fc517:1313389265
But this is resin which does not have Amber's UV reaction, and my thing reacts just like amber

 

No, yours isn't Moroccan copal. Those particular beads are darkened from being worn over a very long period of time. Skin grease, sweat and dirt have become engrained in the copal. As you can see, the dark areas are only on the sides of the beads that were in touch with grease and sweat, there is no black veining.

Some types of copal can react to UV, usually whitish, but also green and even blue, like this copal from Madagascar:
https://www.geologysuperstore.com/product/fluorescent-copal/

But your beads don't look like copal to me either.
It looks like the beads are varnished, or maybe that is just the photos. Some varnishes also fluoresce, depending on the colourants that were added.

 

Thanks, Any!
I mean that the link I gave refers to a resin item, not genuine copal, which is not shown in the title, but can be read in the description. I saw it after posting "This is a nice old strand of Faux Amber Berber Saffron RESIN Beads."

To me the thing I bought does not look covered with lacquer (varnished) but just polished. I have a resin brooch (faux amber) that has some glow in UV (even posted it here) but the colour and appearance of glow is different from this one. I had one real amber necklace and this one next to each other and they seem to glow in the same way, same intensity, same color. But let's say it is indeed varnished and glows because of it, then the question remains what is beneath the varnish.

A, I forgot, the separation beads are made of satin glass. Can it be some indication to where the necklace came from? Or it can just be from anywhere, as satin glass was exported by the Czechs.

 

aa mix of almonds and walnuts...........????

 

TBH, it allured me, too, so I had to roast some peanuts and pistachios. I now have them with my wine.

 

Looked like toffee lumps to me!

 

Ah, OK.
Moroccan Berber women are very good at making their own faux amber and faux copal, using the simplest of techniques.

Yes, the Czechs exported all over the world. Germany also made satin glass, also for export.

Perfect!

 

Update. That damned thing passed the float test!

 

Great news Iva.

 

Thanks, Any! I still cannot figure out what kind of amber it is if at all amber. Very close to chopping off one of the nuggets and doing the needle test...

 

The needle test won't tell you more than the other tests you did. Besides, needles are for sewing, nothing else.

It seems that it is indeed amber, but....
.... there is another thing you could do, rub your thumb against a bead for a minute or so, and then smell your thumb. If it is amber, your thumb should smell of pine needles.