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Duncan Miller
Joined: 25 Apr 2009
Posts: 138
Location: South Africa
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 Posted: Apr 13, 2010 07:24 Post subject: Loliondo spessartine garnet fakes |
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In 2008 I bought a purported matrix specimen of orange spessartine garnet from Loliondo, Tanzania. It has transpired to be a fake. After soaking in acetone, the garnets fell out of the hollows carved in the coarse mica schist, with remnants of glue in the hollows. The bases of some of the garnets lack crystal faces. Two dealers have informed me of encountering similar fakes. Please be warned. Because I don't have any examples to test, I don't know the status of the specimens on the market with much finer micaceous matrix.
Duncan Miller
Cape Town
| Description: |
| Fake Loliondo spessartine matrix specimen disintegrating in acetone. |
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Montanpark
Joined: 06 Nov 2008
Posts: 241
Location: Mainz
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| Posted: Apr 13, 2010 09:25 Post subject: Re: Loliondo spessartine garnet fakes |
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Duncan,
i also can confirm that quite a lot of offered matrix specimens were fabricated, but not all. I have a matrix specimen that is obviously not faked (fine grained matrix), but i have seen a few at a fellow collector recently (where i got my specimen) who was tricked by the faked ones, around 50 % of his matrix specimens were obviously fabricated upon detailed inspection. I also heard of such fakes at Munich 2009 show reported to me by a friend.
One has to check the specimens very carefully before purchase...
cheers
Roger
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Carles Millan
Site Admin
Joined: 05 May 2007
Posts: 1469
Location: Catalonia
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| Posted: Apr 13, 2010 09:58 Post subject: Re: Loliondo spessartine garnet fakes |
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| Montanpark wrote: | | One has to check the specimens very carefully before purchase... |
Of course!
But you cannot go to the mineral shows with a bottle of acetone in your pocket... Not all forgery is as easy to spot as that. And when you are back at home, too late, unless you purchased the specimen from a reputed dealer.
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Montanpark
Joined: 06 Nov 2008
Posts: 241
Location: Mainz
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| Posted: Apr 13, 2010 10:15 Post subject: Re: Loliondo spessartine garnet fakes |
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| Carles Millan wrote: |
But you cannot go to the mineral shows with a bottle of acetone in your pocket... |
Of course it is not the standard toolbox when i go to the shows ;-)
... and i did not mean to sound teaching at all
In this particular case i knew for what to look at the specimens, there were some quite indicative hints if inspected carefully. I think most of us already have been taken in .. including myself. I once had a namibian specimen that disintegrated into 4(!) components - and not in acetone alone which did not dissolve anything but in a mixture of isopropanol, acetone, methylethylketone ... if i had been suspicious before i may have seen the glueing but i wasn´t, as the specimen costed only 1 Euro.
cheers
Roger
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alfredo
Site Admin
Joined: 30 Jan 2008
Posts: 979
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| Posted: Apr 13, 2010 11:23 Post subject: Re: Loliondo spessartine garnet fakes |
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| Be warned also that not all glues are acetone-soluble. I once bought a Brazilian diamond in matrix, and the dealer allowed me to test it with acetone. It passed that test, but later at home it came out in the ultrasonic cleaner - Water-soluble glue mixed with limonite powder!
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Carles Millan
Site Admin
Joined: 05 May 2007
Posts: 1469
Location: Catalonia
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| Posted: Apr 13, 2010 14:08 Post subject: Re: Loliondo spessartine garnet fakes |
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| alfredo wrote: | | Be warned also that not all glues are acetone-soluble. I once bought a Brazilian diamond in matrix, and the dealer allowed me to test it with acetone. It passed that test, but later at home it came out in the ultrasonic cleaner - Water-soluble glue mixed with limonite powder! |
So sooner or later even the wisest and most cautious collector is doomed to be cheated... I myself have already experimented it several times and I fear there will still be another.
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