Jump to content

Coral? Agate? Something else?


Jonelle

Recommended Posts

Hi I hope this is OK to post here as I have seen others asking about other fossils which aren’t exactly in their original form... I picked this ring up at a thrift store because the color just screamed coral to me... I thought it may have just been a costume piece but apparently it is most likely an antique. I polished it up and I am now fairly certain it could be red coral. It is hard for me to get a really good close up pic since I only have an iPad but if anyone has any tips on IDing coral that doesn’t involve sticking any acid on it since it is possibly a valuable antique. I have a little 15x lens and up close the “banding” actually looks more like finger prints or light layers..which is what the other photos of coral cabocons seem to have. I posted it in an antique jewelry group but no one was knowledgeable about coral...the best guesses they has was agate or glass (defiantly NOT glass)..so I thought I would ask the best fossil identifiers in the world.. thanks you! 

 

I will post the original and polished photos.

 

24FE298C-6197-4E46-BB47-11AA4AAB3DBB.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, caldigger said:

Is it in a brass setting? The photos make the metal look brassy.

@caldigger I thought so too until I polished it..it was extremely dirty and still is a little but it is looking gold plated now. The cleanser it gets the more gold it looks. I’m trying to upload but it’s not going 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The dimensions of the cab would be important as well since coral of significant size is fairly rare. How exactly do you know it isn't glass?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gold shouldn't tarnish. It doesn't oxidize like many other metals due.  It may get dull, but not turn dark/ black like that.

Can't really see the "stone" well enough to get a good I'D. Could be Bakelite for all I can tell.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

57 minutes ago, Jonelle said:

defiantly NOT glass

I’m with @Sacha on this, could very well be glass, impurities in the liquid glass could turn to rings when the glass was worked. Looks very glass like to me. I’m not seeing a coral as there are no corallites as one would expect.

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

Link to comment
Share on other sites

50 minutes ago, Jonelle said:

@caldigger  I’m trying to upload but it’s not going 

So do I in another topic. Maybe it's a problem with the soft on the server.  :headscratch:

" We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. "

Thomas Mann

My Library

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Jonelle

I am seeing a piece of glass also.

The faint banding is typical for old glass where the mixing technologies where primitive.

The color looks somewhat orange for "red coral" (which is not a fossil) and there is no coral features in it (which should be visible even in a polished piece.). Could be carnelian (a type of agate), but the faint banding is not typical of carnelian.

The tarnish makes Me think sterling silver, but it is hard to identify metal from a picture. Victorians used many odd alloys, so having it tested by a jeweler is the best chance of determining the metal makeup.

 

Good luck!

Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, caldigger said:

Could be Bakelite for all I can tell.

+1

 

Try taking a red hot needle to the back of the "stone"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, caldigger said:

Gold shouldn't tarnish. It doesn't oxidize like many other metals due.  It may get dull, but not turn dark/ black like that.

Can't really see the "stone" well enough to get a good I'D. Could be Bakelite for all I can tell.

 

5 minutes ago, Peat Burns said:

+1

 

Try taking a red hot needle to the back of the "stone"

 

 

Would be cool if it were Bakelite! I’ve also heard running it under hot water will make it smell like formaldehyde..or using silver polish it will turn a QTip a yellowish color..I will try it.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

I’m with @Sacha on this, could very well be glass, impurities in the liquid glass could turn to rings when the glass was worked. Looks very glass like to me. I’m not seeing a coral as there are no corallites as one would expect.

 

1 hour ago, ynot said:

@Jonelle

I am seeing a piece of glass also.

The faint banding is typical for old glass where the mixing technologies where primitive.

The color looks somewhat orange for "red coral" (which is not a fossil) and there is no coral features in it (which should be visible even in a polished piece.). Could be carnelian (a type of agate), but the faint banding is not typical of carnelian.

The tarnish makes Me think sterling silver, but it is hard to identify metal from a picture. Victorians used many odd alloys, so having it tested by a jeweler is the best chance of determining the metal makeup.

 

Good luck!

 

2 hours ago, Sacha said:

The dimensions of the cab would be important as well since coral of significant size is fairly rare. How exactly do you know it isn't glass?

 

 

Wow @ynot I didn’t know red coral was not a fossil, I guess that changed the nature of my post! 

 

Also, for the glass camp... what would be the best way to check? I tried googling what it would look like in a loupe and I couldn’t find much info. It did seem to react to the vinegar but that isn’t going to be accurate since it isn’t just a stone (or glass, or whatever it is..) anyway this is pretty much the info I was looking for.. not a positive Id just some tips on what the surface should look like magnified if it were coral. 

 

Either way thanks for all the info! I learned something new for sure !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

43 minutes ago, Jonelle said:

It did seem to react to the vinegar but that isn’t going to be accurate since it isn’t just a stone 

Huh? Did I miss something?

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...