How to distinguish between agate chalcedony and quartzite and jasper

The agate and chalcedony family is very large, including the quartzite jade used for counterfeiting above, which is actually also the family. What is the difference between the obvious family, some of which are worth a fortune, and some of which are worthless?

1

Agate, chalcedony

Expensive ones go to heaven, cheap ones go to earth

Chalcedony and agate, although called by different names, are essentially quartz jade and have a very close blood relationship.

And they have one thing in common: a wide variety.

Some of them are rare and uncommon, but of such extraordinary quality that they can soar to sky-high prices, while others pass unnoticed and are so cheap as to be dusty.

1

Chalcedony, investment value: ★★★★★☆

The colorful world of chalcedony is often divided into varieties by color: white, colorless, red, yellow, purple, green, blue, and black.

What you are probably more familiar with is colorless chalcedony, which is transparent in texture and emits fluorescence in good quality, like iced jadeite. In fact, colorless chalcedony itself is glassy and refreshing, and is also good value for money.

Red chalcedony is also appealing, with its bright, crystalline, intense red color and beautiful textured surface, and its auspicious meaning.

Despite this, many people look down on them for one reason: they are too cheap.

While colorless, red, and green chalcedony can get some attention for their beauty, and yellow chalcedony can get some status for its rarity, white chalcedony is often the most dismal bargain of all.

In fact, white chalcedony with a little bit of special pattern can immediately ascend to immortality, and even the noble blue and purple chalcedonies have to be subservient: ocean chalcedony.

1) Ocean chalcedony: big gains, big risks

Ocean chalcedony, also known as sea chalcedony, has a variety of beautiful, inclusions composed of patterns and motifs distributed inside the crystal chalcedony.

Once these patterns can lend special meaning to the human imagination, the value of this marine chalcedony is almost as much as you want to quote.

However, such unique chalcedony can be hard to come by, so collecting it is a risky proposition. In contrast, it is the blue and purple chalcedonies that have a noble price and are relatively stable in value.

②Blue and purple chalcedony: worth collecting

Blue chalcedony is similar to purple chalcedony, except for the difference in internal iron ion content: many purple chalcedonies have a blue tint, and blue chalcedonies may also have a purple tint.

Taiwanese blue chalcedony, one of the “aristocrats,” can cost up to $1,000 or even $10,000 per gram. It is also known as Taiwan blue chalcedony, and is often a rich, clear blue.

Gem-quality blue chalcedony is rare, and Turkish blue chalcedony is relatively well colored, pure, and fluorescent, with prices in the thousands of dollars per gram.

Translucent to transparent violet chalcedony, which is dark, flawless, and bright, and often looks very much like violet jade when it is richly purple, is mainly produced in Brazil.

2

Agate, investment value: ★★★★

South red, a classification within agate, is a stone’s throw away!

Before 2014 and 2015, Nanhong was obscure, and it was said that the market was selling by the pound, but in 2014, Nanhong began to show the first signs of a “surge”, with low quality grams costing several hundred and good ones thousands. In the end, the company’s business is still very much in the hands of the people.

Remember the 2.2 cm diameter, 15 gram Baoshan South Red bead? The company’s first ever “The New York Times”, which is the first time the company has been in the business, is a great success. In the subsequent years, the rise of the South Red is even higher.

The most popular Baoshan Nanhong, although revered for its beautiful persimmon red color, is limited in terms of mining and market share because of the “nine cracks in ten reds”.

Sichuan Liangshan Nanhong is tougher in comparison, and its color and luster are not inferior to those of Baoshan Nanhong, so it is a strength that makes it a hit.

At present, the market has passed the previous “hype” period and is slowly returning to a normal level, with the price of good quality grams stabilizing at a few thousand dollars, making it increasingly suitable for ordinary, red gem-loving friends to invest in.

3

Personality agate, investment value: ★★★☆

But is there no one in the onyx family except South Red? Of course not!

From the beginning of our ancient times, agate has been ranked in the top 3 of jewelry and jade ~ always a symbol of beauty and good fortune.

The greatest advantage of agate is that it is so beautiful and distinctive, because it is a rare gemstone with intricate natural patterns.

During its millions of years of formation, agate has developed its unique textures, which must be different and unique, just as no two leaves are the same under the sun.

The common onyx and silk-wrapped onyx are among them, and there are many highly sought-after examples, such as the Warring States Red.

The Chinese people respect red and yellow, and the Warring States Red is a collection of red and yellow colors that make up a strange cloudy sky, so it is naturally very expensive.

So it is also understood that if the shape and color of the texture are special enough, this piece of agate will stand out.

The so-called “eye of the sky” dzi beads, medicine beads, and so on, all take advantage of the texture~

There are also many niche agates that are worth a lot of money, mainly because they are similar to “odd stones”. The myth of overnight riches is often associated with the “odd” pattern or the “odd” shape of the stone.

The world’s most expensive Gobi agate, one of which fetched 130 million yuan, is this famous “chicken in the shell”:

What’s odd about it is that it’s a natural shape

.

But it’s not just anyone who can find such a rare stone.

Compared to the oddity of the shape, the oddity of the pattern is still relatively reliable, but it is also more common, so the price is much lower, and if collecting it is recommended to choose bunches of jewelry with a good pattern:

4

Silica jade, investment value: ★★★★

Among quartz jade, there is a special classification – the fossil category! This includes silicified wood, silicified coral, and silicified jade.

Silicified wood is fossilized wood, and with a longer history and more unusual conditions, there is also the possibility of jadeization, which becomes silicified jade (also known as nephrite):

Silicified wood is a fossil, but it doesn’t look good enough, and its main value is in scientific research.

Nephrite is not only valuable for research, but it also has a jade-like appearance, with rich colors and different shapes, which makes it worth a lot of money.

Large pieces often cost hundreds of millions of dollars

Similarly, silicified coral is also a fossilized coral.

The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of what you are getting into.

2

Counterfeit and double professionals

Represents: quartzite, jasper

The nine sons of the dragon are all different, and there are both the dragon and the phoenix among people in quartz jade such as Nan Hong, Shui Cao Agate, and silicified jade ….

The quartzite jade is a very different kind of jade, but there are also “professional stand-ins” such as quartzite (including jingbai jade, dongling jade, etc.) and jasper.

These two are of little value to themselves, but they like to impersonate their siblings and even cross species as stand-ins for jadeite and Hetian jade on the basis of a few similarities in appearance. It’s a bold move~

1

Jingbai jade posing as Hetian jade

Jingbai jade, which is pretending to be Hetian jade, is white and has a fine, pure texture with few impurities, and is crystal white.

They are the same as Hetian jade.

Alas, how can a “double” completely replace the real one? Although it looks like Hetian jade on the outside, the nature of quartz makes it far worse than Hetian jade–

1) Quartz is produced in such large quantities that there is no question of its rarity, and it is completely worthless

②Although at first glance it looks like Hetian jade, the internal structure of Jingbai jade is loose and not at all dense

③The luster of Jingbai jade is glassy, while Hetian jade is greasy

2

Dongling jade passed off as jadeite

Let’s talk about another quartzite that is often passed off as jadeite – dongling jade. It’s actually called donglingite, but it’s called “jade” only because of its “blue-green” appearance.

And because quartzite is so loose, it can be easily acid-washed and glued, making it easier to pass off as jadeite. But because the texture is so different from that of Hetian jade and jadeite, it’s not hard to tell the difference.

3

Jasper is pretending to be South Red

As for jasper, it is a companion mine of southern red, but it has the guts to replace the main one.

We can see that although jasper is also red, it is a heavy stone with many inclusions and impurities, which makes it a common ornament at best, and not much of a collector’s item.

Warm reminder: The latest market news is always available, please follow LuFuture.com app.

.

Jewelry, agate,