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Has this ammonite plate been enhanced or is it natural?


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Hi I've got one more for you guys today. Thanks for all the help so far. I was wondering if the reddish brown ammonite plate in the pics looks like it has been enhanced with some kind of lacquer or if those colors are from how it naturally fossilized? Do you think it looked similar to the grayish plate to the right of it at one time and was then coated? Sorry in advance for the pics. These are the best ones I currently have because these items are in storage right now.

post-11958-0-76895100-1466100176_thumb.jpg

post-11958-0-12365600-1466100212_thumb.jpg

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There appears to be some original ammolite on some of the ammonites in the first plate, but I would say that it has been coated in some way, to look shiny on the matrix like that. :unsure:

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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The reddish brown ammonite plate has been coated with something to hold it together. Note that both the matrix and the ammonites are very shiny. The coating is not so bad as it probably holds the rock together.

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The plate is sealed with some kind of coating, to stabilise the ammonite shells and to refresh the shining of the pearl, which is not so colourful preserved originally.

And: please do not call it "ammolite". This term is, as far as I know specific (meaning undefined but in some areas a commonly used name) to pearl (aragonite) impregnated with lead and zinc sulfides and only found in two (three?) sites worldwide. And, from my point of view, it should not be used generally, because it is nearly the same like all these unspecific non defined terms and fantasy names for some color versions of some minerals, invented by traders to push up the prices.

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Those ammonites are Psiloceras planorbis from the lower Hettangian, planorbis zone at Blue Anchor Bay, Watchet, Somerset, England, the only place in the world to my knowledge where they can be found in this type of preservation. The mother of pearl is preserved which accounts for the iridescent colors, but it is not ammolite, as Johannes has pointed out. The plate on the left has been thickly coated with laquer, which disturbs the natural preservation, which can be seen well on the plate on the right.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

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