Most turquoise testing only requires “thumb nail” tests. The softer it is, the less valuable it is. The harder it is the more valuable. All in which I have only been told. The geologist who performed the testing, stated that it is indeed high quality. I have no understanding of geology or how anything is tested. I can only go by what I am being told by professionals.
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With this further detail on your degree of acquaintance with the specimen, I’d like to hear how you arrived at the asking price.
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yikes. for that asking price, you should legitimately be providing an actual verifiable written provenance from the miner that dug it out of the ground. that is the ONLY acceptable identification for turquoise specimen collectors at the value level you are suggesting, imho. otherwise, you just have a big rock with a patch of blue.
there is probably a combined hundreds of years experience on this forum in buying, cutting, setting, evaluating, and dealing in turquoise, not to mention decades of collecting, and 100% of us will tell you that most mine attributions are guesses only. every turquoise mine produces an array of colors, grades, and matrix types, and those that can be reliably identified by mine on sight are very, very, very few.
when in doubt, it’s probably kingman. or even chinese.
from photos alone, this also might be just a thin skin of turquoise in that one area, or even chrysocolla.
best of luck.
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Can only offer my expertise as a jeweler who has operated a cutting shop. Hardness probably varies. Visually, the quality runs from mostly mother rock, to a bit of what may be fairly high quality cutting material to low (visual) quality material, to chalk which is likely only suitable for treating. This isn’t by any means all high quality material, and truthfully, if someone is representing to you that it is, you should probably seek a second opinion from a respected professional turquoise cutter.
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With all due respect, I would sell it to the person that stated it was Bisbee but expect some serious backpeddling. It’s too bad that it looks like you have been unintentionally misled. The folks here are well versed in turquoise. It looks like possibly Kingman. I’ve seen nice Kingman cabs sell at auction recently for $0.50/carat, and that’s already cabbed. Raw unknown rock does not bring much. If it were me I would cut it to give potential buyers a look at what’s inside. Verified high quality Bisbee is selling for $15 - $20 per gram. On a final note, offer it at $100k to the person that valued it. That would be wholesale and they should jump at it.
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Definitely not chrysocolla. It has been tested by the University of Mississippi’s geology department. We are awaiting an appointment to have it appraised.
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