I’m truly hoping the color hue isn’t being severely altered by a low rate filter (or any sort of filter for that manner, i utterly hate them). Could this be Golden Hills by any chance? Kinda rare in Japan to be honest… Apologies for the silly screen shots, courtesy of the usual low resolution photos provided by the auction site.
I doubt this is golden hills, which normally has a more violet-ish tone to it. this looks more like that Dry Creek pale blue tone to it, reminds me of glacier water. However, I’m not sure about that chunky matrix, i’m almost thinking some other variety of Persian? Definitely an eye catching stone either way.
Glad to hear is more likely to be an American stone after all… Make no mistake, Golden Hills is very pretty and unusual but I do have a personal predilection for American mined stones. Dry Creek is gorgeous but the chocolate chip matrix doesn’t add up as you stated. Truly appreciate your valuable insight, Jemez2 ![]()
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I’ve never seen turquoise matrix that matte and rough looking, it’s gotta be some fake ass dyed imitation of some sort… I mean, i love how pretty the stone itself looks but I’m out of ideas at this point
matrix can definitely be matte and rough looking when the turquoise is harder than the matrix and will take a polish when the matrix won’t. in my opinion, it’s evidence of being real turquoise and not faux/block. you’re unlikely to get a definitive answer on what mine this is - most of us here will tell you that unless you have provenance from the miner that dug it out of the ground, all you will get s an educated guess, which is what i provided above. I dont see any need to throw out the baby with the bathwater over the name of the particular mine. It’s a good looking little ring with a pretty stone, and probably Navajo made.
I agree with everything @Jemez2 has said here. I do think that it’s real turquoise and the rough matrix doesn’t concern me. Another possible idea is Godber-Burnham, but we will never know for sure. I do feel fairly certain it’s not Number 8, however.
I’ll take a guess at Jarilla turquoise.
Interesting! I wasn’t familiar with it so I Googled it. I think I’d heard of the mining district, but couldn’t remember the name of it. Cool!
I have no guess on the mine except to say I don’t think it’s Kingman ![]()
Well at least we can all agree the stone to be american mined? Over 200 possibilities I suppose…
Nope, we can’t all agree on that
. I have no idea if it’s American mined or not.
I think @OrbitOrange may be onto something. The abundant dark chert reminds me of the matrix in acouple Burnham pieces I have, although mine is much darker turquoise. Although with the pale color I’d tend to call it Dry Creek.
Woods Turquoise is currently mining the Godbur- Burnham- Dry Creek Turquoise mine. Check out their website, they have some very light blue turquoise cabs with a similar darker matrix. Just saying it’s similar, we’ll never know.
P.S…I LOVE chocolate mint ice cream!!!
Mint Chocolate ice cream turquoise it is
The true origin is highly unlikely to ever be known so i’ll settle for that ![]()
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Your insights are truly appreciated! Thank you so much everyone ![]()
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That matrix looks highly suspect. This may be a composite.
@Nance1 Hello and welcome. Since no one here knows your level of expertise or background in Native Am jewelry, kindly share your reasoning for this comment.
Hello my friend, my background is mineralogy and gemology. Gemological Institute, Santa Monica. I showed some of your pics to the Woods who are the owners of the Godber-Burnham Mine, and the current proprietors and sellers of authentic Dry Creek and Godber-Burnham turquoise. Their response was that it is not Dry Creek, they have no idea what it is, and that the fill job in the matrix is terrible. So yes, the stone, whatever it is, has been poorly cut and the matrix improperly filled and treated. That isn’t to say that the stone is a composite necessarily, only that the material was not cut or stabilized properly. Only further testing would determine exactly what the stone is, and whether it is natural, synthetic, or a dyed Howlite or Magnesite composite.










