Ammonite! many millions of years too
beautiful specimens from Madagascar
stunning rough Opal from Oregon, USA.
seems to me like an underwater world inside..just beautiful, amazing..makes me travel a lot :-)
Ammolite is sold in four grades according to its color and brilliance.
AA - exhibits three or more brilliant sharp colors.
A+ - a stone that displays two or three bright colors.
A - exhibits two or more play of colors.
Standard - exhibits one or more distinct colors
and what about Ammolite ?
Ammolite is the mineralized remains of an Ammonite, the predecessor of the Nautilus (see old post).
Limestones containing various fossilized shells may exhibit bright iridescent colors notably red and green. This organic material is known as ammolite, korite, lumachella or fire marble, depending on its origin, structure and market.
jewelry tips: Natural ammolite is a 3.5 - 4 on the Mohs scale and is extremely delicate and brittle but triplets with protective clear quartz or spinel caps increase the hardness to 7 to 8.5, making the stone more durable for jewelry
Have you ever heard about DINO BONE ?
Agatized Dinosaur Bone or “dino bone” is the result of fossilized bone from dinosaurs in which the cellular structure has been replaced with quartz, leaving the bone structure intact. The resulting stone is a 7 on the Mohs scale.
Many excellent specimens of dinosaur bone are found in and around the American southwest. Dinosaur bone ranges in color from brown to black with splotches of red, blue and bright yellow. Dark yellow-gold and red dinosaur bone is also found, but is more rare. The coloring of the specimen is due to impurities that were in the surrounding sediment.
It is illegal to collect dino bone on US state or federal lands thus making agatized dinosaur bone more valuable.
