How much does amber cost? Jewelery from amber

According to experts on the jewelry market, the price of amber per gram has increased several times in recent years. Among the most important reasons is usually called a sharp increase in demand for jewelry from the "sun stone" in China, which is able to "absorb" all products of this kind, produced in European countries and in Russia. At the same time, domestic buyers have become more legible, and most often they prefer beads or rings, earrings, pendants, brooches and bracelets made of medium-class or high-class amber.

Demand and increase in the price of such products led to the fact that the market began to meet fakes of molded fossil tar. In order not to become a victim of scammers, carefully read this article to find out the cost of amber in the retail market at the moment.

Kinds

The price of amber depends on its type. In particular, at present for the production of souvenirs and ornaments the following types of this fossil resin are used:

• Claret is a transparent amber with a color from dark brown to almost colorless.
• A translucent (smoky) fragment of fossil resin, in which, along with transparent lumens, there is slight turbidity due to the presence of air bubbles. Usually it has a color in various shades of yellow. Sometimes it is red and even blue.
• Bastard is amber of medium transparency, of a heterogeneous yellow color with dark spots.

Ambroid

In addition to these types of natural amber, there is an artificial, obtained by pressing from small fragments. It is also called an ambroid, and very often on the shelves of jewelry stores you can find jewelry from this artificial ornamental material. For the preparation of pressed amber, small pieces of fossil resin are ground into a powder and heated without access to air. After that, it is moved to a special press and at high temperature under pressure is converted into a viscous mass. Then it is laid out in the shape of the desired configuration and an amberoid is obtained, which after polishing can be used for making jewelry. To distinguish the pressed amber from natural is quite simple. To do this, you need to apply a drop of ether to the surface, from which natural amber will not suffer, and the pressed one will be covered with a sticky film. In addition, connoisseurs can detect fraud even with visual inspection, as artificial samples look like a "patchwork quilt". Before asking the seller about how much amber costs, ask if it is natural or was obtained by artificial means.

Kopal

When buying jewelry from amber, it is very easy to become a victim of scammers. For example, under the guise of a natural you can sell a dig. It is a resin that is several thousand years old, whereas the age of the present is not less than several million. To reveal a fake, it is enough to drop a drop of alcohol on the surface of amber. If it is real, then there will be no traces left on it, and a stain appears on the copal, or the surface becomes sticky.

How much does amber cost?

Most often in decorations, processed pieces of fossil resin with a size of 11.5-16 mm are used. If you consider jewelry from amber alone, for example, smooth or faceted beads or bracelets, then the retail price for them is 10 to 30 US dollars per gram.

Exclusive amber

The main forms of pieces of fossil resin are droplets, stalactites, and also various types of filaments. The larger their size, the higher the cost, and the samples that are in the right shape are more valued. Most often, amber is purchased by collectors. At the same time, the upper price limit does not exist, and they are often sold at well-known auctions.

Inclusion

The most interesting variant of amber are inclusions. They are fragments of fossil resin with particles of prehistoric flora and fauna, and their share in the total volume of amber is only 10%. As inclusions can act as fragments of leaves and flowers, as whole insects or even miniature amphibians and reptiles, belonging to species that long ago disappeared on the planet. In this regard, there is no unequivocal answer to the question of how much amber of the type of inclusions is. If you are considering the cost of an exclusive piece of resin with a rare insect inside, then to purchase it you will need to pay from 350 to 700 US dollars per gram. As for inclusions that are not of interest to collectors, their price is calculated on the basis of the following principle: the cost of amber with inclusion of five times more expensive than a piece of this size usual. Given what has been said, you should be careful and alert if you are offered an inclusion with a butterfly or a beetle inside for a penny. Most likely, this is a primitive fake, which has nothing to do with this amber.

Jewelery from amber: beads

Most often, the treated fossil resin is used to make beads. Such products from amber to women, and in some countries to men, have been worn since prehistoric times. Beads that are 50 years old or more are more appreciated. The fact is that the longer the fossil resin is in the sun, the brighter it becomes. In addition, much depends on the method and quality of processing, as well as on the size and shape of the beads.

Products in silver and gold frames factory, made by casting

Amber jewelry is very popular when the rim is made of precious metals. The cheapest ones are cast silver products with fossil pitch cabochons. They are very small pieces of amber, faceted in such a way that the front surface becomes convex, and the back is so worn that it turns into a flat one. At manufacturing such ornaments the minimum of manual work is used. They are produced in large batches of several hundred pieces and are among the relatively cheap jewelry. In particular, the retail price for cast jewelry from amber and silver at the moment is only 4.5-7.5 US dollars per gram.

Handmade decorations

To produce such decorations, only large amber cabochons of good quality are used. In this case, all operations from rolling out the precious metal to its polishing are done manually. The retail price for similar products from amber, if silver was used as the frame, fluctuates within the limits of 7.5-12 dollars per gram. If we are talking about rings, bracelets, pendants or earrings with inclusions, then depending on their rarity, the cost of decoration can exceed the name of 5-10 times.

Now you know what kinds of amber is. The price of jewelry from it has been growing steadily lately, so today they are considered a prestigious and desirable gift.