I was first told about these fakes last year, single Calcite crystals glued together in clusters on basalt matrix.
FakeMinerals was given these pictures from Sami at Matrix India, exposing these fakes.
As you can see, the Calcites are grouped together in circular sprays. At the base of the crystals the glue is visible.
So, if you see any of these on eBay or at a local rock show, beware, they are F-A-K-E!
Certainly not something you want to find out about your beautiful gem crystal on matrix…but in fact, a whole subdivision of gem mineral sales at the point of origin are sometimes manufactured specimens involving a liberal slathering of glue to hold everyting in place.
For instance, the new wonderful Scorderite xtls on matrix from China. Beautiful. Glued.
So, if you have any specimens you wonder about, give them a soak in some Acetone. See what falls apart! Sometimes nothing, sometime something substantial. Bummer for us honest mineral collectors and dealers.
Thanks to Dr. L for the photo!
In the video above Alfredo Petrov shows Justin Zzyzx an Aragonite with Gypsum from Spain that has been dipped into Copper Sulfate, turning the Aragonite GREEN, as if it were pseudomorphed into Malachite. Very pretty, but very fake!
Over the next couple months The-Vug.com will be traveling all over the USA to pass out magazines, film and take lots of pictures to share with you on The-Vug.com, FakeMinerals.com and Wheretobuyminerals.com. People write in everyday to tell us what a great job we are doing for the mineral community. Tack on $5.00 to those words and we know you are serious! =) Planes, Cars and Gas, not inexpensive. So, chip in a five spot and keep The-Vug.com plugging along!
This link will take you to the page of The-Vug.com Quarterly Magazine Online PDF archive.
On this page you can download the Fakes issue, Vol 1 #4 and read it FOR FREE. How great is that?
In the magazine you’ll find a story on the Arkansas Diamond Fraud and a whole issue devoted to fakes and forgeries in the mineral world.
So, no matter how you got here, from our parent site, The-Vug.com, from an article or newstory, Stumbleupon, or google, welcome to my site and enjoy the articles and public shaming of people who would try to swindle you out of your money.
I get e-mails from people who buy gemstones all the time. I am not a gemstone kinda guy…I just cringe when I think about my gem crystals being ground down! So, I don’t have many tips for you that haven’t been handed down to me from others.
If you are buying a rare gem stone and want to make sure that you are getting what you paid for, how about getting it cut yourself?
If you want good quality cut stones, why try and buy cheap stuff off eBay? Personally, I wouldn’t trust cheap gemstones for the sole reason, there is an entire market out there set about fooling you! Some person from Thailand isn’t really going to be too worried telling you that they are 100% honest, non-treated…when in that culture, it just doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t matter to them if they are lying to you. In fact, they just assume that they have to do that to get you to give them your trust. With the conusmerist programing we have had, we are all too willing to give our trust to someone right away when they tell us those buzzwords. The person with the screaming deals and the gemstones at stupid low prices have them that way because they DON’T know what they have.
Just deal with a reputable dealer(s) that you know on a face to face basis. If I was buying gemstones that is what I would do.
If I just wanted cheap brightly colored shiny baubbles, maybe eBay is the place to go.
Look at this crap. Faced green glass sold as faceted Moldavite. Yeah, Moldavite IS glass, so how are YOU going to prove him wrong? Sigh.
Below, two pictures from the same auction. The crappy Green Quartz clusters from early 2000’s have now come back…as YELLOW!
Sure to scam a whole bunch of novice buyers, this shitty Citrine is doing nobody a favor, except for the people selling it.
Thanks Mike!
Azeztulite is nothing but plain old Quartz, one of the most common minerals in the entire world. I could take you to thousands of locations where junk Quartz is laying all over the ground. But you wouldn’t bother picking it up. Not unless you were planning on putting a “special name” on it so you could sell it for $5.00 a carat!
That’s right, one more time for anyone who wasn’t listening.
Azeztulite is nothing but Quartz.
Ok, so I was following links to this site and I saw someone posted a link, but they messed up and wrote FakeCrystals.com, instead of FakeMinerals.com. I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to be mixed up, so I went to register that domain name.
But someone else beat me to it. So, I figured, let’s find out who and see what they are using it for! It would be great to have a new fighter on our side, another person serving as a light bringer. Whoot.
Nope. Go to http://fakecrystals.com
It is now owned by ONE of the WORST on the WEB, http://mountaingems.net, a site that talks about crystal healing and other metaphysical mumbo-jumbo. Getting ready for a Spirit Quest? Look no further than MountainGems.net! MountainGems.net been getting tons of common Brazilian junk and cheaply made Brazilian Chakra kits (I can say all this, as **I** worked for SEVERAL YEARS supplying these sellers while I was manager of a wholesale company…I placed the orders FROM the Brazilian dealers who make this stuff, so we could sell it to people like her.)
So, she registered FakeCrystals.com as a retort to FakeMinerals.com doing a proper hit piece on the overall SCAM that is Azeztulite.
Let me blow her counter claim right out of the water…
“First of all there is a huge difference between the Metaphysical World and that of mineral collectors. Just because we in the healing and enlightened community have “named” our healing stones and crystals for our own use does not make them fake.”
Afraid not. You see, that might work fine when you do something such as call Anhydrite “Angelite”. There is no difference in value to massive Anhydrite rough and the trade name Angelite. That is, you would get the same amount of money for a one pound chunk of light blue Anhydrite as you would a one pound chunk of light blue Angelite. It is the same thing and the same price. You don’t get charged more for the Metaphysical name, Angelite. So, have at it. Use Angelite all you want.
That’s not the case with Azeztulite. Let me make it clear. The reason our little cold black scientific hearts get all agitated with these idiots is that they think that taking a WORTHLESS item, such as junk Quartz and slapping a new name and story on it, they can take a WORTHLESS item and sell it for several dollars PER CARAT!
No.
We will do everything in our power to make sure that the thought that junk Quartz can be re-branded and sold as a premium is stamped out all across the world. We will destroy your lies and your myth and all you’ll be left with is the wads of cash you’ve taken from people…use that to wipe up your tears.
I promise all of you Metaphysical dealers. All of you who think you can just slap names onto rocks and charge 10x the normal max retail price. You’re going to LOVE Tucson!
And my new website,
Http://www.FakeAzeztulite.com
Pwned.
And thank you to all the metaphysical dealers out there who are actually very honest and up front with their customers and don’t buy into this whole fake rock thing. Your e-mails are very much appreciated!
We have been over this one before, the first time I saw it was in 2002 and it seems it will never stop, though the popularity it dwindling.
Red Quartz polished items from China are Red Glass. Very simple. In fact, some also say it is from Madagascar or somewhere in the asian pacific. Of course it is really just polished red glass.
These two pictures are both links to two different auctions, run by the same person on two different accounts!
One is a buy it now with FREE shipping! Only $88.00
Next is an auction for .99 with $70.00 shipping!
Either way, getting his price! Advertises it as “POLISHED BLOOD-RED QUARTZ CRYSTAL”, but in reality needs to be labeled “Bright Red Glass Sphere”
NOTICE! SAME PICTURE, DIFFERENT AUCTION. DIFFERENT AUCTIONS, DIFFERENT SELLERS!!! SAME PERSON, TWO ACCOUNTS!!!
Don’t we all WISH there was a RED QUARTZ location in nature that actually produces stuff like this? Who knows, maybe one day we will find one just like that in a huge quanity, but until then, GLASS. It is glass.
Click on the link to go to the eBay auction and bid on the ACTUAL Fluorite in the photo!
Be sure to pick up your own copy of the new magazine, on sale NOW on eBay! Mega 64 Page Special!
