According to experts in the jewelry market, the price of amber per gram has increased several times in recent years. Among the most important reasons is usually called a sharp increase in demand for jewelry made of “sun stone” in China, which is able to “absorb” all products of this kind, manufactured in Europe and Russia. At the same time, domestic buyers have become more legible, and most often they prefer beads or rings, earrings, pendants, brooches and bracelets from raw amber of medium or high class.
The demand and increase in the price of such products have led to the fact that fakes made of pressed fossil resin began to be found on the market. To avoid becoming a victim of scammers, carefully read this article to find out the current value of amber in the retail market.
Kinds
How much amber costs depends on its type. In particular, at the moment, the following types of this fossil resin are used to make souvenirs and jewelry:
- Batter - transparent amber with a color from dark brown to almost colorless.
- A translucent (smoky) fragment of fossil resin, in which, along with transparent gaps, there is a slight turbidity due to the presence of air bubbles. Usually it has a color in various shades of yellow. Sometimes it is red and even blue.
- Bastard is an amber of medium transparency, heterogeneous yellow with dark spots.
Ambroid
In addition to these types of natural amber, there is artificial, obtained by pressing from small fragments. It is also called an ambroid, and very often on the shelves of jewelry stores you can find jewelry from this artificial ornamental material. To obtain pressed amber, small pieces of fossil resin are ground into powder and heated without air. After that, it is transferred to a special press and at high temperature under pressure is turned into a viscous mass. Then it is laid out in the shape of the desired configuration and get an ambroid, which after polishing can be used to make jewelry. To distinguish pressed amber from natural amber is quite simple. To do this, apply a drop of ether to the surface, from which natural amber will not suffer, and pressed amber will be covered with a sticky film. In addition, connoisseurs can reveal fraud even with a visual inspection, as artificial samples look like a “patchwork quilt”. Before you ask the seller about how much amber costs, ask if it is natural or was obtained artificially.
Digging
When buying jewelry from amber, it is very easy to become a victim of scammers. For example, under the guise of a natural one, they can sell you a digging. It is a resin that is several thousand years old, while the present is at least several million. To identify a fake, it is enough to drop a drop of alcohol on the surface of amber. If it is real, then there will be no trace left on it, and a spot will appear on the copal, or the surface will become sticky.
How much is amber
Most often, processed pieces of fossil resin with a size of 11.5-16 mm are used in jewelry. If we consider jewelry made from amber alone, for example, smooth or faceted beads or bracelets, then the retail price for them is from 10 to 30 US dollars per gram.
Exclusive Amber
The main forms of pieces of fossil resin are droplets, stalactites, and also naty of various shapes. The larger their size, the higher the cost, and the more valuable are the samples that have the correct shape. Most often, such amber is acquired by collectors. However, there is no upper price limit, and they are often sold at well-known auctions.
Inclusions
The most interesting option for amber are inclusions. They are fragments of fossil resin with particles of prehistoric flora and fauna, and their share in the total volume of amber is only 10%. Inclusions can be fragments of leaves and flowers, as well as whole insects or even miniature amphibians and reptiles belonging to species that have long disappeared on the planet. In this regard, there is no single answer to the question of how much amber of type inclusive is. If we consider the cost of an exclusive piece of resin with a rare insect inside, then for its purchase you will need to pay from 350 to 700 US dollars per gram. As for inclusions that are not of interest to collectors, their price is calculated based on the following principle: the cost of amber with inclusion is five times more expensive than a piece of this size ordinary. Given this, you should be careful and alert if you are offered an inclusion with a butterfly or a bug inside for a penny. Most likely, this is a primitive fake, generally not related to real amber.
Amber Jewelry: Beads
Most often, the processed fossil resin is used to make beads. Such products from amber were worn by women, and in some countries by men, since prehistoric times. Beads that are 50 years old or more are more valued. The fact is that the longer the fossil resin is in the sun, the brighter it becomes. In addition, much depends on the method and quality of processing, as well as on the size and shape of the beads.
Products in silver and gold rim factory, made by casting
Amber jewelry is very popular when the frame is made of precious metals. The cheapest of these are cast silver items with fossil resin cabochons. They are very small pieces of amber, faceted in such a way that the front surface becomes convex, and the back is ground so that it turns into a flat one. In the manufacture of such jewelry, a minimum of manual labor is used. They are produced in large batches of several hundred pieces and are among the relatively cheap jewelry. In particular, the retail price for cast amber and silver jewelry is currently only 4.5-7.5 US dollars per gram.
Handmade decorations
For the manufacture of such jewelry, only large amber cabochons of good quality are used. Moreover, all operations from rolling out the precious metal to polishing it are done manually. The retail price for such products from amber, if silver was used as a frame, ranges from 7.5-12 dollars per gram. If we are talking about rings, bracelets, pendants or earrings with inclusions, then, depending on their rarity, the cost of jewelry can exceed that mentioned by 5-10 times.
Now you know what types of amber are. Recently, the price of jewelry made from it has been constantly growing, so today they are considered a prestigious and welcome gift.