Authentication of Customers Fossil - Dactylioceras

[FossilizedJello]

Hey all, its been a while since ive been around but fossil season is finally here in NJ!

 

I recently sold someone a chunk of Dactylioceras ammonites from Germany. Its not the best piece but I thought he got it for a good deal and they are harder and harder to find. Now he sent me a message saying he does not believe it is a fossil.

 

So I hope I am okay for posting this here. One of his concerns is the little residue in some places but I believe it was slightly used to preserve better in some spots. Thought it would be decent to post this here.

[bcfossilcollector]

Hi. The specimen looks okay to me. There are forum members who are far more experienced with these types of ammonites than I am but I do not see any red flags. 

[bcfossilcollector]

@Ludwigia

[Wrangellian]

It looks like the real ones, I've got one from the same location and I believe they're widely available so it would probably be harder to fake one than to buy a real one. What kind of residue is he seeing?

[FranzBernhard]

This specimen is a little bit "twisted" in shape and it sure urgently needed some kind of stabilization. Perhaps this was not perfectly done, with some surplus in some spots.

Could also be, that two pieces have been glued back together. However, I can also not exclude the possibility that two unrelated specimens have been glued together.

Other than these concerns, the specimen is authentic. Who would fake such an imperfect - although nice - specimen?

Franz Bernhard

[Ludwigia]

I'll go along with Franz. These pieces from Schlaifhausen are a dime a dozen over here.

[Kikokuryu]

Not really an ammonite expert or anything, but that seems to be normal. Mine also has quite a bit of stabilizer/consolidant slabbed onto it as well making it give off a shiny sheen in certain lighting angles. They feel like kind of brittle like you could easily snap them in half, so I'm guessing stabilizing them are a given?

[Ludwigia]

These don't really need stabilizing. The matrix which binds the ammos is usually as hard as concrete and often penetrates the fossils themselves. What you are seeing is probably just a coat of laquer.

[FossilizedJello]

Great, thanks for all the information everyone! Exactly what I figured.

13 hours ago, Kikokuryu said:

Not really an ammonite expert or anything, but that seems to be normal. Mine also has quite a bit of stabilizer/consolidant slabbed onto it as well making it give off a shiny sheen in certain lighting angles. They feel like kind of brittle like you could easily snap them in half, so I'm guessing stabilizing them are a given?

This is a good example to compare, the right picture almost has like a melted look to it and I guess thats what my customer is saying. I can understand it makes the piece look fake to someone who hasnt seen many of these before. I think its just a weird look the matrix gets and also any type of stabilizer.