Mineral Fakes
What to look for &
What to do when you find one
What constitutes a Mineral Fake?
• The specimen is not the handiwork of Mother
Nature
• The crystals did not grow naturally
• The crystals were glued into place
• The crystals were dyed, irradiated, coated, etc.
• I personally believe that modern specimens
matched up with old labels are fakes too.
Why would someone
make a fake specimen?
• Enhance the perceived value of a rock
• A way to use nice crystals and pass them off as
exceptional specimens
• A way to essentially steal from unsuspecting
buyers
• Personal reasons…
Some distinctions need to be made
• Repaired specimens are not fakes
• Restored specimens are not fakes
• As long as the Repair and/or restoration
replicate the original specimen.
• As long as that information is noted on the
specimen label
How do you know
you’ve been had?
This thing looks perfect!
Man, I am going to buy it!
Wow! What a great deal I got!
I can’t wait to get a better look at this
when I get home under my microscope!
Ah Crap!
The first thing to realize is that we all buy and likely
have bogus minerals in our collections.
The best dealers in the world have a drawer full of
them, including me, and all museums have them
too.
They are EVERYWHERE!
Your Most Valuable Tools for Fake
Specimen Indentification
Handlens
A Microscope
A UV light source
Experience
Now for some examples
“Heliodor” from Tajikistan
Aquamarine that gets nuked goes yellow
Wulfenite from Tsumeb
Hard not to see the glue and crushed
matrix which was added in
Fluorapatite from Germany
Every single crystal was glued into place
with a mix of glue and crushed matrix
Elbaite from Elba Island
Flakes of feldspar added to the glue.
Under a scope it hurts to look at it.
Proustite from Peru
The crystal is literally hanging by glue
and little pieces of matrix…
Nice Cuprite from Mashamba
Except that the big crystal
is glued into place…
Euclase from Zimbabwe
I gotta clean that iron oxide out! Hmm..
Nothing seems to get the FeOxide out!
Oh…It’s because it is all glue!
Exceptional epidote from Pakistan!
Except for one thing…
Gold from Arizona
Every piece of gold is a little piece of
leaf gold glued to the matrix.
Why is the gold only on one surface?
Gold from Mexico
Nice crystal but what is all that shiny
stuff around it? Hmmm…
Even the little spots of gold have
been glued in place!
Helvite from Fujian, China
Oh… that is why it was so cheap…
Frankenstein rock from Korea
Looks pretty good from here. But why
two different colors of fluorite?
Pale violet and pale green fluorite… Two colors of
fluorite is only rarely seen in nature on the same rock
And oh yeah, the scheelite
was glued in too.
Manganite from Germany
Looks like an exceptionally fine rock
if you ask me!
I sure do wish all the
terminations were complete.
More important, I wish that the crystals actually
grew there instead of being glued there…
Fluorapatite from Austria!
There’s even another crystal on this rock!
I gotta get all that debris away from
the crystal so it looks killer!
Except… All that debris is glued into
place to look like matrix…
Gold from Russia…
This specimen was cast and then soldered to some
other gold bearing matrix. An atomic absorption test
proved that the alloy was copper and silver with gold
while the other visible gold was void of any copper.
My gift to Scott Werschky
Pretty decent job if you ask me!
Ok – so now you have found your
mineral fake. What’s next?
• Contact the dealer and let them know.
• Be nice about it and keep in mind that most
dealers were likely been duped before you.
• Every dealer worth his or her salt will gladly
refund you your original purchase price.
• If there is a dispute go to a non-partisan 3rd party
to get a 2nd opinion.
• The vast majority of the dealers out there are
honorable people and will stand by their name.
Any Questions?