Why is amber faked?

Listen, we all saw Jurassic Park (except for that one girl I went to school with whose parents wouldn't let her).

A wider audience got excited about amber and the treasures it could hold inside... an audience that had limited literacy in the world of minerals, fossils, and geology. Replica of amber filled a market demand for inexpensive insect-in-amber specimens, and have only seemed to grow more popular each year.

Many people wouldn't mind buying a cheap recreation if they knew what the real thing cost, but these pieces are all too often sold as "genuine" or "natural" amber pieces. Euphemistic terms for "replica" might be buried in product descriptions. This leads to a lot of children and amateur collectors learning a quick—but usually inexpensive—lesson not to trust mineral dealers.

Warning signs amber is fake

To the layperson, amber can look and feel quite similar to plastic or synthetic resin recreations: it is lightweight, soft, and relatively warm to the touch. So how do you tell the difference?

Value

Your first sign something is amiss is going to be the price. Amber on its own is valuable, and amber with discernible insects or plant matter encased inside can be considerably more valuable.

There is a classic maxim in the industry, and this one is true across a lot of industries:

❗ If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

If you go to enough mineral shows, you'll observe that this price for this specimen simply isn't plausible if it were genuine. When you see amber with insects for sale at mineral shows, they are frequently very small pieces in a one-inch plastic box with a magnifying lens on top so you can spot a tiny prehistoric fly inside a blueberry-sized piece of amber—not some honkin' dragonfly in a palm-sized slab.

The 'tiny box' size is often around $15–45 USD depending on quality factors, with unusual specimens commanding hundreds. Meanwhile, my dragonfly-in-amber piece cost about $10 (plus shipping). 

Uniformity

If the vendor is selling more than one, you'll notice the size and shape of the amber piece is very uniform because they are mass produced. Favorite subject matters include dragonflies, scorpions, tarantulas, and ferns.

(Keep in mind natural specimens are typically sorted by size, shape, and type before sale and could appear uniform to a layperson).

It's weird-shaped

Why is it a slab? I've never seen natural material slabbed like this to display insects; the material is usually left in its natural state (lumpy and rounded) or polished. The edge is rough on the slabs, but not actually rough. The shape is rough but the texture is a bit too rounded. I think we're supposed to read it as the natural surface, but in reality it looks like they use a mold to leave a faux-rough-natural-surface impression around the edge in an attempt to mimic natural amber.

The amber is too clean

Natural amber comes in a range of quality, with transparent material more valuable than material that is opaque. Imitation amber tends to have large areas of glassy-clear resin all around the insect or plant inside. Again this is not plausible for the price, and there are unrealistic volumes of these display-quality "specimens" on the market.

... But also dirty

You know what is super common in modern work environments but didn't exist in prehistoric times? Little fuzzies. Look closely under strong side-lighting, and you may see things that look like fuzz tufts or the crimped fibers that shed off modern synthetic fabrics.

🫧 BUBBLES 🫧

Amber is one of the few gemstones where the presence of bubbles isn't a red flag of a synthetic or treatment. Genuine amber can definitely include bubbles of various sizes! Small bubbles create the cloudy or milky appearance in more opaque material.

Amber replicas often have BIG bubbles, usually focused on and around the item that has been submerged in resin, with few bubbles elsewhere. If you have ever worked with resin for crafts, you might be aware of how hard it can be to avoid bubbles on and around the items you're encasing! My example piece isn't exactly an expert job, and ended up with dozens of large bubbles stuck on the dragonfly's wings and underside.

Specimen preservation

Is the insect suspiciously clean and well-laid out, dead in the center of the amber? Is it framed by pretty ferns or leaves sprinkled all around it? You won't see that out of nature.

Insect or animal specimens in amber are typically messy and contorted. If a living thing became trapped in sticky tree resin in nature, it would struggle! Insects often end up curled up with a limb or two nearby and antennae askew. Plant matter is frequently debris like small bits of pine needles rather than specimen-quality leaves.

Is the species even prehistoric?

A modern amber reproduction will use natural materials from the present-day. That means using plants, insects, and animals that might not have existed during the Cretaceous or whatever period they claim the piece dates from.

Experts can quickly differentiate modern and extinct species. I'm no expert, but there are now a lot of neat apps like iNaturalist's Seek that will identify plants and insects for you. Even iPhoto will now connect to IDs if you click on the information button for an image. I ran into trouble using Google's image search though, which only wanted to connect me to other dragonfly-in-fake-amber pieces for sale.

The dragonfly in my piece matches a Wandering Glider, Pantala flavescens, "the most widespread dragonfly on the planet, with a good population on every continent except Antarctica." That is a pretty darn good hint that this is a modern reproduction, and that these dragonflies have been bred or captured due to their abundance.

Tests to confirm identification

Burn test

People often jump straight to recommending a burn test, but as a gemologist I do not condone destructive testing. It might be a quick way to get an answer, but CONGRATS now your real amber has burn damage.

If you try a burn test, find a discreet area to test. Heat the tip of a needle and press it into the surface. When real amber burns, you'll notice a familiar pine scent. Historically people used to burn amber as an incense! The needle may leave behind small crackle marks in the surface from the temperature shock. In comparison, imitation amber will smell of burnt plastic and will leave melt marks under the hot pin—if you get stringy bits like cheese on a hot slice of pizza, you are definitely dealing with some variety of plastic. If the material does not react it may be a glass replica, which would also feel heavier and cooler to the touch compared to amber.

Alternately, rub the amber between your palms to warm it. You might be able to create enough heat to detect the distinctive pine scent.

Static test

Try rubbing the amber vigorously on a static-y fabric (flannels are great!) to test its static electricity: after "charging" it, hold it near hairs or thin strips of tissue paper to see if they are attracted. Genuine amber will have this effect, while imitations do not.

Float test

Historically amber was collected along the shores of the Baltic Sea because the material was lightweight enough to float in with the tides.

Amber specifically floats in saltwater, which is denser than freshwater, so attempting a float test in tap water won't tell you much. Take the amber in question down to the sea shore and set it adrift! (Or mix up a batch of saltwater at home, that's probably safer). Real amber will float, while imitations sink.

Scratch test

Hey man. What the fuck did I just say about destructive testing. (Don't!)

Amber is very soft, a 2–2.5 on the Mohs scale. A kitchen knife can easily scratch it. Instead of testing this by making scratching the piece like a barbarian, look closely at the surface. Does it seem to be collecting scuffs and scratches easily? That would indicate it is soft. Common imitations like glass and synthetic resin are also pretty soft and scratchable though, so I don't find this to be a very valuable indicator for learners.

UV light test

Genuine amber typically fluoresces an icy blue-to-white color under longwave UV light. This UV reaction is common in synthetic resins and also easy to recreate through additives, so this isn't the clearest diagnositic test. My fake piece has a fairly strong icy blue reaction:

In conclusion...

Faux amber specimens are pretty easy to spot once you are familiar with genuine amber. Compared to what I know about amber, and what I'd expect from genuine amber, something clearly does not compute. If you don't feel confident you can discern real from fake, spend some time looking at examples. Mindat.org is a great way to do that from home!