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Fakes & Frauds"Green Surface" Agate

22nd Mar 2019 13:57 UTCLiz Galley

I've been seeing these listings on ebay for "Green Surface" Agates.

These are coming from China, there are only a hand full of sellers listing them. They all have a particular look to them, they are cut and polished down only on one face of the piece. There are enhydro ones, and regular polished ones.

example 1
example 2

What is the green? Natural or a coating? and why is it only on the front of these pieces?

Also these agates, as sliced pieces, do not have a border and the banding does not go from the center outwards.

Forgive my ignorance, I just am not seeing these types of pieces else where. Thanks!

22nd Mar 2019 14:56 UTCDavid Von Bargen Manager

They look pretty suspicious. Example 1 shows the green on the top half being pretty rough while the backside is relatively smoother.

22nd Mar 2019 17:01 UTCPaul Brandes 🌟 Manager

I get suspicious anytime I see the phrase "Magic Crystal Healing" attached to something.

I'd like to see one of these in its natural, unpolished state, just as it came out of the ground.

22nd Mar 2019 17:52 UTCA. M.

The stone is real. The green coating is fake. It states no location, even which country. "Magic" and "healing"? No comment. To me - it is nice art.

22nd Mar 2019 18:20 UTCLiz Galley

I believe ebay sellers put the whole magic, healing thing in their titles as key words, so they appear on more searches. Obviously, there are a lot of crystal healing people out there to reach. And it is a seller from China...there are honest dealers, but you know...China.

The more I look at these, isn't it odd that there is no "rind", no border, no circular banding formation to these agates? It is like they were cut out of a bigger piece and some how a shell was put on???

I bought some polished rounded enhydro agates from my local mineral dealer about 2 months ago and told him about the flat polished enhydro versions of these appearing on ebay. They were not "green surface" ones though, these seem to be popping up more now. He said to me, he would find it hard to believe someone would go through the process of faking an enhydro agate. (But who knows!) They are not going for that much, so what is the point??

I found some more images of other green colored agates selling on another site. I wonder if the "green surface" ebay agates are being made to mimic these??:
https://www.gemrockauctions.com/auctions/large-rare-enhydro-agate-622-grams-gtt-2143-792306

https://www.gemrockauctions.com/auctions/kilo-large-agate-crystal-nobby-s-gtt-2145-225274

22nd Mar 2019 19:36 UTCRick Dalrymple Expert

These are clearly manufacture from polished pieces of agates. These show what is suppose to be an agate nodule but the banding is not what a whole agate nodule looks like. These are clearly manufactured by putting some sort of coating on the outside of a piece of agate and then polishing the face. I would suspect they are tumbled or even ground to shape before they are coated and repolished on the face.

22nd Mar 2019 22:05 UTCDon Windeler

My first thought when I saw those pictures was of the gritty schmutz that was used to coat the outside of fake "galena geodes" we saw in Morocco during the MinDat conference in 2012. These things were laughably symmetric in their shaped and the orientation of the "crystals" growing from the sides -- which were basically toothpicks stuck in putty and coated with galena cleavages. Because it was so cheap, I bought one to make fun of it; I actually have wondered if it was a racquetball cut in half and treated.

Here's a snapshot from my archive:

Your example kind of looks like an agate piece embedded in that material.

Cheers,

D.

22nd Mar 2019 23:55 UTCLiz Galley

Thanks guys for your input!

This is just silly. And getting sillier as I keep looking at all the photos.

I wish I could see one of these in person...even better what their workshop looks like! It kind of seems like a lot of effort to make these.

Whelp, good thing I didn't impulse buy or bid on one. They are really brewing up some strange and creative fakes and concoctions.

Don - ekk those things! And they contain lead.

23rd Mar 2019 01:13 UTCKevin Conroy Manager

I'm not sure which is the most ridiculous, any of the previous "specimens" or this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Worlds-Oldest-Taco-looking-rock/273656779504?hash=item3fb73712f0:g:H6MAAOSwMOVcPMTF

23rd Mar 2019 02:01 UTCPaul Brandes 🌟 Manager

Naaaa, looks more like a gyro sandwich to me.......

23rd Mar 2019 02:03 UTCAlan Pribula

Well, at least it's "straight from the earth" and "not modified." I wonder if it's "all natural" and "gluten free" as well. :-)

23rd Mar 2019 02:36 UTCDon Windeler

Liz:

I agree that the originally-linked specimens are likely to be junque and I would avoid them like the plague. (But hey, my aesthetic probably doesn't match with everyone's... maybe green schmutz goes with their decor.)

Just to be clear, though, I've got no problem with lead minerals in my collection -- many of them are beautiful and there's no health risk unless you stick 'em in your mouth and suck on them to calm yourself.

Lots of threads covering real vs. imagined health risks of minerals, but I'll throw out a couple

https://www.mindat.org/mesg-62-390295.html

https://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,6,227391,256010

If you look around, you'll realize there's a lot of nonsense on mineral safety as well. I have a fair number of poisonous and radioactive minerals in my collection that I appreciate and (with appropriate treatment) don't worry me one whit.

Kevin, I'd actually love to have that rock in my collection. I did make an an offer for it (at five orders of magnitude less than the asking price) but was rejected, however, so I guess not. I've seen it suggested that these are an approach to money laundering -- obviously I'm not privy to what that individual has in mind, however, and maybe they just really love their taco rock.

Cheers,

D.

23rd Mar 2019 03:23 UTCLiz Galley

Kevin, that listing is madness - Thanks for the laugh!

From the front view it looks like a dynamite sub (aka sloppy joe, I just gave away where I come from) gone wrong and fossilized...

What a black hole ebay is, whelp people have tried to sell their kids on there.

23rd Mar 2019 03:28 UTCA. M.

Liz Galley Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Don - ekk those things! And they contain lead.

So as Swarovski crystals ;-)

26th Mar 2019 00:11 UTCLiz Galley

I'm more eeked out by the Galena geodes because of how perfectly round they are and that they are known as tourist/gift shop booby trap items. And as a gift shop item, a kid could get their hands on it...maybe.

I totally understand if you want to collect specimens with lead and other properties, and care for them.

A. Mathauser - I do work in the jewelry industry, I don't deal with standards and regulations but I looked it up, they revamped their crystal formula on 2012, so their products only contain trace amounts ("lead-free") that is acceptable.
https://www.swarovskigroup.com/S/world_of_swarovski/advancedcrystal.html.

Back to the green surface -

for anyone else who stumbles upon this board, and wants more references:

- here's a video of a fraud enydro agate: link

- here's some photos of one that isn't too green on the sides, but still gritty: link

I wonder if there is more out there made this way...

26th Mar 2019 01:31 UTCKevin Conroy Manager

Last year my sister made a geology inspired birthday cake. The mud was chocolate icing, the red and white rocks around the bottom were rock candy sugar, and the agates and amethyst were made from Jolly Rancher hard candy!

26th Mar 2019 02:53 UTCA. M.

That's true, but "The Swarovski Crystal range includes lead crystal glass sculptures and miniature, jewelry and rhinestones, home decor, and chandeliers"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarovski

In my family we have many lead crystals, like these as described. If you are be careful and don't drop them on foot - or worse - on head, you be all right!

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