Hi y’all, I just recently bought what looked to me as a vintage turquoise and sterling cuff bracelet. I don’t know if it was just the lighting in the store, but after a couple days I noticed that there is some light spots around the edges of the stone. It’s not peeling away, but there is definitely some lighter color variance compared to the center of the stone. Does anyone have any thoughts? I figured the bracelet was too old to have fake turquoise in it, but I’ve also never owned turquoise that had fading. Thanks everyone!
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Welcome to Turquoise People. A very common characteristic of this time frame, looks to be turquoise. Nice piece.
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Those are natural variations and host matrix in the stone. Most turquoise varies somewhat in color and I’d be more wary of a piece that was completely even in color as being a possible fake.
This looks like a Harvey-era piece (generally tourist jewelry sold by the Fred Harvey company in the 1920s to 1960s (-ish…dates vary). There is plenty on this site and on the internet about Harvey pieces; although they were designed for the tourist trade, many were made by Native Americans and they’re very collectible.
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Thank you both for your awesome help! I have read just too many howlite horror stories, and it’s kind of like finding a white hair, once you start, you see them everywhere… noticing the same matrixing on another c 1920s buckle, would that be quartz or another mineral embedded with the stone?
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Looks nice! 
Yes please, show the whole buckle! I think the turquoise is lovely in both pieces. To me it looks real (whatever the heck that means). Howlite looks kind of fake. I hope that makes sense. I don’t know what kind of mineral makes up that matrix.
I was the thinking the same thing as @Xtina. It really has a Fred Harvey look.
Looks real to me. Again normal variation of the stones. Beautiful piece!
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