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Fake
and Dyed Turquoise
Examples
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(Above) Travertine 
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(Above) Travertine, also called Mexican Onyx, and reconstituted turquoise is being sold as Pilot Mountain Turquoise. In reality, there is very little turquoise in these beads and turquoise is never, ever found in travertine. The photo on the above right is what Pilot Mountain (located in Nevada) turquoise actually looks like. |
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Howlite (courtesy of Wikipedia photos) |
Dyed Howlite (courtesy of Wikipedia photos) |
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No question, this is dyed Howlite, but being sold as high end turquoise on the Internet. The seller of this piece would not respond to my e-mails asking what mine this turquoise is from. |
Example of one type of "Sleeping Beauty Howlite" being sold on the Internet. There is no such thing as Sleeping Beauty Howlite. |
Plastic
Beads and Authentic Turquoise
Examples
These are plastic "turquoise" beads purchased from Walmart |
Up against
the fake beads, even spherical turquoise has some color variation which is
apparent in all natural color beads (i.e. the little swirls of color
variations and the beads are not all exactly the same color). (Plastic
beads are shown here with Sleeping
Beauty Turquoise round beads) |
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You can easily pick out the fake beads when they are shown next to authentic turquoise beads. It is hard to tell for sure, though, when you have nothing else to compare them to when shopping online. This is a great reason to "get it in writing"; have the beads certified by the seller. (Plastic beads are shown here with Sleeping Beauty Turquoise chunky and nugget style beads) |
Again, natural color turquoise beads will always be somewhat variegated in color and, depending on the turquoise, you can usually see some of the host rock (matrix) as well. (Plastic beads are shown here with Nacozari (Sonoran) long splinter style beads) |
All of our turquoise beads are natural color
A Certificate of Authenticity Provided With Each Turquoise Purchase
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Albuquerque, New Mexico
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on the
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Last modified: December 18, 2009
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