Quick tip: Is amber real

[EmmaRose]

There are alot of fakes out there....don't forget it could still be copal (which is amber minus a few thousand years or so)
Em

[Maureen Darling]

Hi, I visited the amber museum in Southwold last week. They have quite a few fakes on display there. One point they make is that if you look at amber with inclusions you should expect to see signs of struggle as the insect would naturally try to escape. Well worth a visit.

[bustagasket]

welsome to the forums maureen , used to go to southwold as a child, never been there since. Shame

[lorraineflee]

Hi, I visited the amber museum in Southwold last week. They have quite a few fakes on display there. One point they make is that if you look at amber with inclusions you should expect to see signs of struggle as the insect would naturally try to escape. Well worth a visit.

Hi Maureen, welcome to the forum.
You are almost a neighbour as I am about 12 or so miles from Northampton in a little village called Felmersham in North Beds.
Lorraine

[Di Sandland]

Hi Maureen, welcome to the forum.
You are almost a neighbour as I am about 12 or so miles from Northampton in a little village called Felmersham in North Beds.
Lorraine

I know Felmersham! I trained at Bedford Hospital North Wing/Luton & Dunstable Hospital. Lived in Dunstable.

[EmmaRose]

I am another near neighbour in MK. Have been to Southwold many many times, from when I was a small child. I love it!
Em

[Fiona]

Create a high saturated solution of salt in water. Amber will float. Fakes and close relatives (of amber not yours ;-) will sink....
Em

Woo hoo.. my fairly large bag of baltic amber chips float... obviously I didn't leave them in the bag

[glen]

Real Amber can also not be 'real'.
True amber is fossilised, there are alot of amber products being sold that arent actually fossils. The very dull opaque amber is often probably not really a fossil, even in many circumstances this is not a perfect way to judge the purity of amber.

[Hart-Star]

If you can gene splice the DNA from any embedded insects into frog eggs and generate a series of dinosaur eggs then I guess it's not a fake (at least from the Hollywood point of view.)

Neil