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Black Baltic Amber?


Napoleon North

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IIs it black amber? Floats in water. I do not know maybe the colored part of the crumbled. Smells of resin.

Size : 3-4 mm x 5mm

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Inquiry revealed two rarer types of opaque Baltic amber that are dark brown or black - stantienite and beckerite. So if your piece passes the standard "amber tests": floats in salt water, takes a static charge, impervious to acetone, smells of "pine" when touched with a hot needle it is safe to call it amber.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, also are remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. - Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

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In my experience amber only smells of pine if burned (hot needle). If your piece has the smell of resin without burning then perhaps it is modern. A test of this would be to see if a drop of acetone makes it "sticky." Amber is sufficiently polymerized, as to be impervious. Copal and modern dried resin will become sticky on exposure.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, also are remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. - Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

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