Greetings
I have an amazing bracelet with some unusual turquoise. It looks as though there are sections of gold in it. In other places it looks more like copper. It’s an older piece and is made of sterling but the section with the stones react to a magnet so I’m thinking that part is nickel silver? The signature is not legible and is scratched into the metal deeply. Here’s pics. Any help would be appreciated!
The signature looks like 2 birds feet?
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I don’t know if this helps, but as per ‘gemstonemagnetism.com’:
Copper (Cu) is occasionally found as a coloring agent in gems, creating blue and green color. Copper is inert (diamagnetic) as a native metal, as can be demonstrated when we apply a magnet to a household copper pipe fitting. Ions of cuprous copper (Cu1+) in gemstones such as Cuprite are also diamagnetic.
With a change in the valence state, a high concentration of Cu2+ (cupric copper) within the copper salts of idiochromatic minerals can create significant magnetic attraction. Examples include translucent to opaque blue Turquoise (copper phosphate), blue Azurite (copper carbonate), green Malachite (copper carbonate), blue-green Chrysocolla (copper silicate) and blue-green Dioptase (copper silicate), all of which show magnetic attraction.
Beautiful blue stones, nice piece! Great pics too!
Thanks so much Pete! That is really interesting. I never realized that gemstones had magnetic properties. I did acid test the front of the bracelet and it is sterling silver which means the reaction to the magnet is coming from the turquoise. Even though the flecks look like gold I’m guessing it is Copper. Still trying to figure out what the turquoise might by. I’m wondering if it’s Morenci since the only info I can find about turquoise with heavy amounts of copper is Morenci. If there are any rock hounds out there or experts in turquoise please help!
Probably pyrite in that turquoise and not copper. Pyrite is magnetic.
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Also agreeing with markyboy, your turquoise contains pyrite. It’s is also a possibility that the stones are backed with a magnetic material, which is causing the magnet to pick it up.
Yes my first thought was pyrite but some area are really red like copper and other areas look exactly like gold. I’ve never seen pyrite look like this. Any guess on which mine produces stones with this amount of pyrite? Is there any way to test the pyrite?
Thanks again for all the help
It is pretty common for copper to be found with turquoise. There are many mines in which turquoise has been found with pyrite. Morenci turquoise would be most notable, Kingman turquoise also contains pyrite sometimes. I’m inclined to say yours is Kingman, based on the water webbing, but Jason will give you a more definite answer.
It’s so hard to tell the color from pics, even in great pics!