Featured Money clip: turquoise?

This money clip is 3/4" wide and 1 3/4" long.

Is it green turquoise? Is it likely silver?

No marks.

Thank you as always!

Andy

 

get a light in between.......I've seen marks sometimes on the inside..

& that's a funny look for turq...

 

The stone may be chrysocolla malachite,it could be any number of copper based stones though.

 

Thank you @Hollyblue.

 

I came to say this! I bought one once. Marked sterling in a visible spot. Days later looked at it again in better light at a different angle. Sure enough marked alpaca before they folded it over. Contacted the estate ale runner who had sold it to me as sterling. He sent a Morgan dollar and a set of collar studs as an apology. I thought that was awfully generous. If that happened now I’d blame myself for not looking closer and not think to contact the sale runner. I was brand new to buying metal at the time. I also bought at 12k gold chain at the sale. A couple years later I decided go sell it. Had a guy buy and pay for it. Before shipping it examined it again for the first time since buying. It occurred to me that in the years since buying it I had very rarely seen 12k gold chains. I looked closer at the mark, then closer still. Something looked odd. Kept looking at it and realized that someone had rubbed off the fraction. 1/20 or 1/10 probably to indicate gold filled. One could speculate it happened accidentally over time with friction. However it was just about perfect. A newbie would have never caught it. Looking back on the sale and the alpaca piece marked sterling I started to think about that seller. Was he really being generous and wanting to make sure he had a satisfied customer or did he have a guilty conscious knowing that he also sold me GF as solid gold in addition to alpaca marked sterling. Was he the one who applied the bad sterling mark and rubbed off the necklace clasp? Was he just the one that moved the items on knowingly? Did he not know? I’ll never know. I cancelled the sale and refunded my buyer. Live and learn as they say!

I like to generally think I can spot silver amongst other metals. When it comes to jewelry with general southwestern/Mexican type vibes of a certain era I dial back my confidence. Some of that alpaca type stuff can look pretty good.

edit: based on these photos it doesn’t look like silver or turquoise to me. Hope I’m wrong!

 

I concur...

at a pow wow, a 1st nations dealer sold me two buffalo horn tips......
I was younger and didn't know better...and took his word !
I still have them on display....to remind me !!!, to know what I'm buying !

of course...they are both cow horns.........

& sad to say......I still make mistakes due to my youthful exuberance , and trusting nature ............... but I'm learning ...

 

Good story / buyer-beware advice @J Dagger.

@komokwa I looked on the interior for any mark or scratch even: nothing. Thanks too for that tip.

I didn't have high aspirations for this piece but figured I'd better check with y'all anyway.

 

Our 'mistakes' are actually 'tuition' paid to the school of collecting expertise. It's one of the best ways to learn.

 

yup....as long as the lesson is indeed learned !

but that...is not always the case !

 

Still happens to me. I’ll buy bags of sterling trusting the auctioneer or estate sale person that I’m buying it from only to find a piece or two of junk in them often enough. I’ve realized many auctioneers, even ones with excellent reputations will call just about anything Native American or Chinese to get extra bids from novice bidders. Both of which I’ve fallen for before. They’ll put known fakes in their auctions and just not date them. Novice buyers will assume that if they are in an auction of otherwise authentic and antique items that they must be good. Speed bidding while distracted I’ve fallen for this. Lots of potential pitfalls out there. As potteryplease said, it’s the school of hard knocks for sure.

I recently bought an item off fbmp. Paid them upfront with no protections after talking to them on the phone for like 30 mins. That was more diligence than I’d done with 99% of my marketplace/CL buys. I had never once had an issue, always going on intuition. This guy burned me for $160. I’d like to say I learned a lesson but I’ll find something good again and trust someone again. Over confident in my ability to read people, and too trusting in the general honesty of people.

 

Mistakes = tuition. Like that!

Debora