Ebay diamonds in kimberlite??

Thanks for the link!

Really good article.

There is something in the human mentality that makes us want to believe something, even when our heads tell us that it's too good to be true.

I remember reading about that scam mentioned in the article quite a long time ago.

Also, I remember reading something about a man who thought he discovered a large Diamond crystal with inclusions of Emeralds, of all things.

He had discovered the 'Diamond' and had taken it to a jeweler, who promptly told him that he had a huge Diamond with inclusions of Emerald.

If I remember right, he spent a large amount of money to go to a city and when it was checked out by experts, it was promptly found to be a Quartz crystal with Chlorite inclusions.

I wish I had this whole story...

I think it must be about 20 years ago that I read it, so that's why it's a bit fuzzy .

Chris,

Please let me clarify, I was not talking about you when I said have tried contacting the seller on eBay. I was referring to another seller that has sold multiple examples of a Colorado kimberlite that "have diamonds". I wish I were them to have over 30 pieces of kimberlites with diamonds to put up. From their pics, their "diamonds" are obviously not diamonds. Sorry for the poor wording.

Jen

Chris,

As to kimberlite and basalt being similiar - the only way they are similiar is that they are both igneous and both are dark colored. I have over 50 different kimberlites (my specialty) and some basalts in my collection, many from Colorado and from the Colorado Diamond belt. Basalts are extrusive igneous rocks, solidifying rapidly above ground. They are generally very fine grained - you cannot pick out individual grains in the groundmass (the background dark color of the rock). They may have some larger crystals as phenocrysts of a single mineral - like a feldspar. Kimberlite on the other hand is intrusive, solidifying underground slowly. Kimberlites have a very unusual texture - you can often see the individual minerals in the ground mass (the dark background) and often have phenocrysts of multiple different minerals. I don't know a lot about knapping, but I was under the impression that rocks with a fine-texture (like, basalt, flint, obsidian, etc.) were used for knapping. Kimberlite, with its larger grains would be very difficult to knap as you would be knapping along crystals - kind of like trying to knap a granite. I've never seen a granite arrow head or tool.

Kimberlites also have a distinct mineralogy, this mineralogy is the definition of a kimberlite. Kimberlites contain kimberlite indicator minerals such as garnet (bright red and purple), ilmenite (metallic silver), chrome diopside (gemmy and bright grass green), phlogopite mica (bronzish-brownish), and olivine (light greenish-yellow). I see none of the colors or indicators in your sample, which is what originally led me to question it.

This is a picture of a Colorado Kimberlite, nothing like the one in the auction....

[cgi.ebay.com]

Holy cow, that auction description is just...

Absolute and total rubbish:

'Earlier in the year, a 6 carat, 6 sided white diamond was found in one of the pieces sold! Here is the message from another buyer earier this month on February 12, 2009:

"Hey guys, just a quick story. My 12 y.o. nephew took a rock hammer to one piece today, about the size of a bagel. And he extracted a 6 carat 6 sided white diamond., WHHHHHEEEEYAAHHHH".

And supposedly:

From a past buyer... "I read somewhere that the Colorado kimberlite pipe material has an astounding 90% yield (in other words, 90% or more of the kimberlite found has diamonds in one form or another). This is way more than the African mines which yield less than 10%".

Awesome.

So, look out Colorado, the Diamond Rush is coming your way!

And the fact that the seller lists the whole piece as weight in carats is just beyond belief.

I HAVE SEEN THIS ROCK UP CLOSE. THESE DIAMONDS ARE NOT GLUED ON THEY ARE ENBEDDED IN THE ROCK.

Thanks Randy, but are they diamonds?

With regard to Chris Axelrod's original e-bay offering, which inspired this thread: Kimberlite weathers very quickly, relative to other rocks. A genuine ancient artifact made of kimberlite would now be soft and crumbly. It's not kimberlite and not diamonds. Seller (and his consultant "jewellers" ) are misguided at best.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/2009 12:20AM by Alfredo Petrov.

I tend to agree with Ralph, it looks like andesite, with bipyramidal quartz phenocrysts.

Alfredo Petrov Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> With regard to Chris Axelrod's original e-bay
> offering, which inspired this thread: Kimberlite
> weathers very quickly, relative to other rocks. A
> genuine ancient artifact made of kimberlite would
> now be soft and crumbly. It's not kimberlite and
> not diamonds. Seller (and his consultant
> "jewellers" ) are misguided at best.


Knowing geology and minerals is one thing but knowing what those same materials do or look like when being used as tools a few thousand years ago is something different. Very soft stone has been used for thousands of years without becoming crumbly, steatite had been used as ancient pipes that are still around and in perfect condition,but if put in an oven it turns white and crumbles. Very porus stone has also been used, maybe you have seen the lava rock mortars and pestles? Not the new ones but the Archaic ones that are still as functional as the day they were made but have taken on a very dark patina. Bone artifacts are still found in dry caves and burials, you would think by now they would have turned to dust. When a stone is quarried or just picked up and flaked or just used as a tool it changes the look and sometimes the structure of the material, lava stone when used as a mortar gets tighter grained on the inside from use, slate and shale artifacts tend to be the same way, stone axes and celts get a very high polish from use. Im not saying that you dont know your "stuff" but I know mine and that's artifacts. I have looked up every stone you have said this looks like and none of them look like the piece that is in my hand.

Oh so much controversy! Hey Chris, i noticed on all your other photos from other items you have sold on eBay that the photography is quite good with the macro and croping. But on your "SPACESHIP DIAMOND ROCK" they're all... fuzzy? Srange you would let the photography be so bad on such a "PRIZED" piece huh? Keep the dream alaive brother! I beleive you have an authentic piece, but those aren't diamonds.

Folks let Chris walk away from this with some dignity. What do you say?

Chris, Flawed analysis? Perhaps?

I give you twenty dolla!

Chris check blue ground and yellow ground at Kimberly. Most Kimberly diamond specimens older than about 50 years are fakes or more charitably repairs!!! The Kimberlite alters in short order and the diamonds fall out. They have to be glued back in. If your artifact was Kimberlite it would be less than a century old. I think you said this came from an older big artifact collection. With such mineral collections, there are always a few bizarre things, that are too neat to chuck even if the owner knew what they were.

This site has a little bit of info about the Kelsey diamonds and Kimberlite.
[www.geosc.psu.edu] and [starmon.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/2009 09:49AM by Mark Rheinberger.

Sadly as long as there are idiots out there prepared to believe anything they read in an ebay advert there will be people trying to take advantage of them for a quick buck.

Jolyon

One of the secrets to being a successful salesman is to "Believe your own bulls**t."

Well, somebody bought it last night for around $200. Considering all the discussions it triggered, it would almost be worth the selling price to have that "artifact" as a conversation piece!

If it were real that would be the bargain of the century

Jolyon

Just saw on the national TV news that some 'healer doctor' is selling for € 75,00 a piece, that ugly little moroccan white quartz druses, the ones they give you for free when you buy them something, as a treatment against the H1N1 flue virus. He had already sold like 1.000 to 2.000 pieces.

And it's news on national television!! Free advertising of Midlle Ages believes at national level.

What else to say? Yes, suck all the money you can from this foolish people.

Jorge

Well, I guess you could apply a Darwinian aspect to it all. For animals, the strong eat the weak; for people the smart ream the stupid.

Woodrow raises a good point. From paintings to minerals there have always been frauds . Some are extremely good and very interesting, often with great stories behind them. I've always been puzzled why there isn't a market or collectors for such objects.