Amber With Inclusions

 Please note: Try these test at your own risk!  We take no responsibilty for any outcome or damage to any pieces as a result of these tests.

Amber will float in a saturated salt solution (ten level teaspoonfuls of salt in a large glass of water of water).   Plastic will not.   However this only works with loose stones .   If you are checking a set piece there is the "hot point." method.  Basically its getting a pin head extremely hot and touching it to an area of the Amber.  If it emits a pine resin smell it is genuine amber.   If it emits a petroleum distillate smell, it may be plastic.   Obviously if you walk into a fine jeweler and start attacking the amber jewelry with hot pokers your not going to be real popular.   This is where dealing with reputable jewelers is essential. bubbles, plant debris, clouds, inner layers, cracks and fissures, insect parts, opacities, swirls and stresslines are present to some degree in most pieces and can help verify authenticity. 

Beware, for example, of a necklace of perfectly matched, transparent beads -- that would be most unlikely. Insect inclusions that appear flawless or perfectly placed are also suspect, since most insects and animals entombed in amber show signs of struggle and attempts to flee before dying.   They do not march in a neat little line into the amber.  They generally had the sap roll over them or they flew into it.  They struggle and things fall off, or they appear scrunched up.   

The faking of inclusions of amber has been a major cottage industry for generations.  This perhaps reached its height in the early 1900 and a major source was from New Zealand. The North Island has some major deposits of Kaori Gum, and at the turn of the 19 century some was used to fake and imitate true amber. The digging of Kaori Gum was such a major industry in fact the workers even had their own newspaper; 'The Gum Diggers Gazette'.

In general, true ambers give the impression of lightness and warmth and a complex, glowing luster. Many, but by no means all, synthetics feel heavy and cold, and appear to radiate a dull luster.