Raw turquoise

These are some random pieces of raw turquoise I have acquired, no information on where they’re from or even whether all of it is actually turquoise.


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On the first photo, the cuff, the big junk on the left, the pendant, the ring (wow!), and the blue chip in the top right (could also be a mint chocolate chip, try it) look like real turquoise to me.
Same for the cuff and the ring on the second photo. Looks hand made.
Most other stones look massively treated/stabilized, if turquoise at all. Very unsure about the beautiful orange & light green speckled piece.
I am not a pro but like guessing to see later how many I got right, after experts have taken their more educated guesses.
Close-ups always help.

Way too much for me to take in at once (that’s a lot of stuff in one picture), but I’ll make a couple comments.

I love the 5 stone cuff, no good guess on the turquoise. I would think the stones in all the jewelry pieces are turquoise; don’t know about all of the individual stones. I wonder if the top pendant turquoise is Chinese (not sure if the color of matrix is coming across accurately), and if the top ring stone is Number 8. I’m guessing the bottom right pendant is amber?

I have looked at a lot of turquoise throughout my life, and I often still can’t tell if something is heavily treated or stabilized, so I have no clue about yours.

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A bit hard to tell from the photos but i’d guess the blue/green stones look like turquoise, except for these 2 perhaps:


Top one Variscite? Bottom one dyed Magnesite?

The rough stones mostly appear to have been stabilized imho

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I misspoke when I said “raw turquoise,” as I agree that some of it appears to have been stabilized. I just meant it hadn’t been properly worked.

I believe the bracelet on the left is Morenci turquoise due to the pyrite inclusions.

The chunky ring is a bit harder to identify—it has a dark matrix of what looks like basalt. Maybe Number 8, but it feels like a stretch. Possibly Cerrillos? I got it for myself as a 50th birthday present.

The cuff on the right with the rounded cabachons is made by one of the artists at Chimney Butte. I’d guess Persian, although a lot of sellers of Chimney Butte claim they use Sleeping Beauty. I traded something for it, and ultimately plan to sell it because it’s too feminine for my taste even with my small wrists.

Whomever said Variscite (Damele) on the cut stone, I think that’s correct.

Oh, I also wanted to note that the sterling hoops with balls on them are old Navajo earrings.

I wasn’t the one who mentioned stabilization, because I have a hard time telling about that unless it’s obvious. If I had to guess, I still think top ring looks very much like Number 8, not Cerrillos. Don’t know about it having basalt (I would think that would be more black - this just looks like dark tan matrix). Left cuff could also be Kingman; Kingman is known for pyrite. The five stone cuff isn’t hitting me as Persian, but :person_shrugging:

Those earrings look heavy, and like you would need a pretty large hole in the ear, youch! But they are cool.

Only thing we can do is give educated guesses when we don’t have good provenance.

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Some better photos might make things easier to identify:

Don’t get me wrong, my education on this has mostly come from looking at online sources and I can’t always be confident that those aren’t misidentified themselves. I’m asking here so I’ll learn, and I’m happy to know what it is that people are seeing that is helping them identify.

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To me Number 8 is a little more recognizable than some of the other mines, because of its webbing and the color of the matrix. Cerrillos doesn’t seem to have that webbing, and is often more green. As far as Morenci vs Kingman, that’s not always easy for me to differentiate, but they are both known to have pyrite. And there is so much Kingman out there that it’s sometimes the default. I’m used to seeing Persian with more matrix than these, but I haven’t looked at as much of that type of turquoise.

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I had initially testily identified the ring as Cerrillos based on some photos I found online of a similar stone which had been identified that way, but doing an image search now I don’t see many that look similar. Apparently I was too hasty, as you’re right that it looks more like a lot of the Number 8 I’m seeing.

The Kingman vs Morenci ID is more difficult. I’ll just have to settle on calling it Moreman (or Kingenci). I suppose I could just call it “turquoise” but that takes all the fun out of it. Maybe someday we’ll all have XRF sensors for our phones and then we can build a database of them based on chemical composition. :wink:

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