Look what someone brought into the shop today!

[Gilberticus 374]

 

I don't normally do this, but I've never seen anything quite like this. An amateur might say "well, that's easy, it's desert glass!" And that's what I thought at first, too. Desert glass is when lightning or a meteorite strikes sand. But all desert glass have a few common threads, which this lacks. Other signs indicate to obsidian. Believe it or not, not all obsidian is black. But this lacks some of the characteristics of obsidian, on top of the fact that this has a hardness factor of diamond. This also has some characteristics of quartz. Someone who knows a little bit of what they were talking about might hypothesize that magma bubbled to the surface and hit quartz sand, but there would be bubbles, which this lacks. I can tell that a tremendous amount of pressure has been applied to it for at least a few hundred years. It also looks like there are copper wires all through it, like thin cable wires. There's a term for that, but I like to speak in terms that you can understand, and I don't think there are too many gemologists in here. The spindles, asters, and striations that this thing has wouldn't have happened while this thing was buried under so much weight, so I have no clue how they happened.

. All of my tests and UV and toys are also baffled. My tests show this thing is obsidian and diamond and quartz and gold, which is impossible. They also indicate high levels of iron, which is also impossible because the rock would have a blue-green tint instead of this variation of salmon. I'm sure that nature made this, a fake of this type is easy to spot, I'm just not sure of what it is that nature made.The woman gave it to me in exchange for a small quarts necklace, which is profit for me. I told my employees when we first started this place that if there was anything that ever came through those doors that baffled both me And the equipment, we'd have a pizza and beer party that weekend, but that is just a drop in the bucket compared to how much business this little conversation piece is going to drum up for me. I just hope no one wants it, because I have no clue as to how to appraise this little beauty

[Gilberticus 374]

Ahhh, now I see. It's very interesting when a simple camera picture can tell you things that expensive equipment can't. You can't see the things that look like thin copper wire running all through the thing, which tells me those are types of air bubbles. I've never seen air bubbles who's paths are colored. I still have no clue why my machines are telling me it's part gold, but I understand part of what happened to this thing. This has seen several natural events. Lightning hit quarts sand with enough intensity to melt it, then lava immediately enveloped it. The quartz substance underwent slow heating and cooling for hundreds of years underground. I'm sure this is from somewhere close to Australia because of some of the trace elements. There are still trace elements that don't make sense , in addition to some that can't be identified. Man, this is going in the front showcase for sure! I hope the rest of you are having as exciting of a day as I'm having!

Edited November 1, 2013 by Gilberticus

[tom.morrow 89]

How big is it, what does it weight? Can it be from a meteor strike instead?

Sometimes, when meteors strike, the earth around get exposed to weird conditions.

An extremely interesting find

grats

[Gilberticus 374]

Now I get to figure out what to do with it. I think I'm going to either raffle it or enhance my other sale. Years ago, I bought a really unique pebble for a buck that turned out to be worth several hundred dollars, which is on display in my store. So now customers can trade me like the woman did if they're stone looks rare and not easily identifiable for little quartz on a rope necklaces, and I place those stones for three bucks a piece in my special sales bin. I also sell simple gem and mineral testers, because it would cost the customers about $175 per hour for me to test. So, for half that price you can buy your own HO-scale tester for the chance to turn a three dollar stone into one of far greater value. Because I'm a softie, I've run simple tests on all of my bargain-bin stones, because I can't sell my customers pure junk. The reason why this desert glass can't go in there is because I'm sure that my customers aren't going to be able to discover something with the HO tests that my expensive machines couldn't find. Maybe I'll run a couple month-long raffle promotion, I like that idea

[Gilberticus 374]

No, it can't be from a meteor strike, good thought though. I thought of that, but there's a simple test to rule that one out