Emerald or Glass?

This is my first post in this forum, so please bear with me.
I was a contractor for 20 and I did some work for an older gentleman. He had traveled all over the world and always brought back rocks. I found one very interesting and he gave it to me. It was almost white and was a fairly soft material that kept falling a apart. I took it home and set it in a flower bed. Well a few years later I noticed something green in the middle when the white substance had weathered away. I just thought it to be a chunk of glass. But what was the white material? It had a consistency of thick toothpaste or something.
The green glass was about a small baseball size. I cut it on my rock saw and found a lot of air bubbles in it. Well I got to thinking that it maybe an emerald. Since it did come from South or Central America. I watched the show about the Bahia emerald and it got me thinking about my green glass. Several years ago I had a vibrating polisher with carpet and I guess tin oxide in it. I had placed this green glass in that and all I came up with is tin oxide stuck to it, just like all the other rocks that I tried to polish. So I went out and found the green glass and tried to take off some of the tin oxide by using a grinder with 120 aluminum oxide grit on it. I got some of it off and then took pictures. It did polish some of the green glass this way. I wouldn't think it would do that if it was glass. So I ended up here and I also emailed a guy named Jeff, one place said "ask Jeff', so I did.
Does anybody have any idea of what I have. The piece pictured weighs 75 grams. Thanks for any info.

It's glass. Natural emeralds do not contain bubbles of that size.

glass or kryptonite...
seriously now, Stan, try to scratch it with a quartz. If you can, is glass.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2012 11:37PM by Jose Zendrera.

Lol Jose.

Yes, it's a perfect example of how not to make African Moldavite

All jokes aside though, it's definitely glass.

First off; welcome to Mindat, Stanley, and thanks for registering!!
And yes, your specimen is green glass....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/2012 12:54AM by Paul Brandes.

I figured it was but I had to try. I wonder what the white material was that was around it. Strange. Thanks for the replies

Found a few very small emeralds @ Emerald City on our trip to NC last year. Cost $10.00 to search.
I did all the 'finding'. :)

Nice finds Diann