Kingman bead

@Jason
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I have several of these beads, Lol, my treasure! Anyway…what determines if a piece of Turquoise is old?

If there’s a photo I can’t see it.

All natural turquoise by definition is very old because of the geological forces involved in its formation. Estimates range to the millions of years. This is of course totally separate from the history of its mining.

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Ha, came here to say the same thing as @chicfarmer . Since turquoise takes millions of years to form, all turquoise is old. I can’t tell you when your turquoise was mined or shaped into a bead; it’s generally not possible to tell that from looking at a single piece of turquoise. The best you can often do is identify the mine and then look up the years that turquoise was actively mined from that mine. If it’s set in jewelry you know it was mined at least before the piece of jewelry was fabricated but you don’t know how long before. A lot of jewelry made today with turquoise from the most famous southwest mines is using turquoise that was mined 50 or more years ago and has been stashed away since.

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Not sure of what you are asking. Are you asking how to tell how old a piece of turquoise is ( I am going to assume you mean after it’s been mined)? Or specifically how many years out of the ground makes a piece of turquoise “old,” like something being called an antique because it’s over 50 years old (or whatever age makes something antique). If it’s the first question, @OrbitOrange gave you a great answer.

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Can u see it now?

Usually the style of bead. The bead you have I would say is more a contemporary cut. The style in this necklace, the turquoise jacla is what we think of as an old cut.

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