Found a ring, any Idea what this stone is?

[Gunny71]

I found this ring yesterday. It looks old to me, and I am curious as to what the stone might be. Not very pretty at the moment, and soap and water with a light brush does nothing for it.
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,448175.0.html
When held in front of a light source it is an amber color.
Thanks.

 

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[artyfacts]

Might be a piece of amber. A jeweler should be able to polish it up for you. Art

 

[Breezie]

I really can't see the stone clearly, but in the 2nd pic, it looks to be solid with a greenish tint. Could it be jade? Use a soft toothbrush, water, and some dish detergent and clean it, and post pics. Neat find, Breezie

 

[Gunny71]

This pic was taken after using a soft brush and detergent. When it dries it looks the same. I'll try to clean it better tonight.

 

[Twisted One]

My guess is Garnet, it comes in just about any shades of amber, orange, red, yellow, etc... and if I remember right it is fairly soft for a gem, so not hard to damage. If you have any type of a buffer you might get somewhere, but I doubt the stone is worth enough to take to a jeweler to be fixed.

I am no expert though...

 

[Snowdragon]

May be an alexanderite. I had a ring just like that but lost it many years ago.

 

[sniffer]

it's amber. the rough look is what happens when it's buried. amber is actually tree resin and will break down when buried. an actual gem or stone, will polish very easily even after buried for a while. the light shining through the back is a giveaway to the amber color.
I've got a part of a necklace that is set in 925 and the front of the amber looks kind of like that

 

[High Plains Digger]

I don't believe that a garnet, jade or maybe even amber would decompose in a few years of burial. Amber is actually dug out of the mountain in Dominican Republic and erodes out of the sea bed in the Baltic. Garnet is softer than quartz, for instance, but not that soft. I once found an older style ring with what looked like an opal that had decomposed, but opal is the same type of thing--ripped from the bosum of Mother Earth. I suspect mine, and perhaps yours, was some kind of early plastic, although that word may not be exactly right. Our ancestors were very ingenioius when they tried to imitate things to make them affordable. Big Cypress Hunter has a catalogue. I wonder if there are some "imitation' stones in that and what they say about them

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

It probably sounds weird, but I have had some luck with a toothbrush and toothpaste - on stones and jewelry that I have dug. (make sure the toothpaste does not have an abrasive).

It does wonderful for gold (white and yellow), and many, many stones, including topaz, citrine, diamonds, etc.

Nice find.

Beth

 

[sniffer]

here is a good site on amber. http://www.bigsiteofamazingfacts.com/where-does-amber-come-from

 

[Gunny71]

Thanks for all of the replies.
I think it is amber. It is a very rough cut, which to me is kind of suprising. I dont have a tester, but the band is gold and the mount silver.
Looks rather different with the light shining through!

 

[sniffer]

the part of a necklace that I have my amber in, actually has a bug stuck inside of it. the jewlerer said it was worth around 75.00

 

[ivan salis]

amber is actually -petrified pine tree sap * that has harded over an extremely long time ( once in a while stone age "bugs" got "trapped' in the sap 'encasing them")

often the trapped bugs are of great interest to science if their DNA is intact *-- Amber commonly comes from the baltic sea area quite a bit and is somewhat honey colored normally --not being a stone / mineral -- it is softer and more easily damaged than a stone would be.

 

[mick56]

amber is actually -petrified pine tree sap * that has harded over an extremely long time ( once in a while stone age "bugs" got "trapped' in the sap 'encasing them")

often the trapped bugs are of great interest to science if their DNA is intact

This is how Jurrassic Park got started. It was a great movie!