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Let's Rock => Identifications of Materials => Deceptive Stones => Topic started by: southerly on May 08, 2016, 03:02:54 AM

Title: Online resources for spotting and learning about fakes
Post by: southerly on May 08, 2016, 03:02:54 AM

I suggest this thread be used for listing online resources that deal with uncovering fakes or help in identification.

I will kick off with a few that are worth looking at:
http://www.the-vug.com/vug/vugfakes.html (http://www.the-vug.com/vug/vugfakes.html) lots of great photos and high level explanations of common fakes
http://www.fakeminerals.com/ (http://www.fakeminerals.com/) run by the-vug.com this is a collection of in depth blogs looking at a whole range of fakes, well worth a browse
http://www.mindat.org/ (http://www.mindat.org/) Mindat is "the" online resource for all things minerals, I use it check locations and verified examples of what a particular mineral looks like, they also identify many lapidary materials and have there own fakes sections with 27 pages of interesting posts.

The GIA reports on a whole host of treatments as they identify them, here is their introduction to treatments http://www.gia.edu/gem-treatment (http://www.gia.edu/gem-treatment) I love the"before" and "after" pics which shows so clearly why treatments are done and how much they "enhance" the stone.

Also if new material shows up for sale that you have not heard of before, do a quick Google search and look for technical papers or reputable sites such as mindat or GIA mentioning it, if the only online references are from those selling the material it is probably not what is claims to be.

David

Title: Re: Online resources for spotting and learning about fakes
Post by: rocks2dust on May 08, 2016, 11:08:17 AM

Here are a few more:
- Gemstone Reports (http://www.gemstonetreatmentreport.com/)
- Gemstone Controversies (http://gemaddicts.com/forums/index.php/board,6.0.html) and Treatments (http://gemaddicts.com/forums/index.php/board,6.0.html)
- Your Gemologist (http://www.yourgemologist.com/)
- Gemmo's Treatment and Synthetic board (http://www.gemologyonline.com/Forum/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=24&sid=d5e70e5a3350c58b74b9438eba4a6391)
- Barbara Smigel's online course (http://www.bwsmigel.info/) (includes treatments, fakes and synthetics)

Really burns me that the fraudsters continue to sell stuff like "Congo Andesine" long after it's been exposed.