FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Andreu]

Hi,

Can someone identify this specimen?

This is my first post in the forum. Some time ago I bought a specimen thinking it was massive rose Quartz. The seller told me he was not sure it was. I always had the doubt that it was or not, as it looks quite different from other pieces of non crystallized rose Quartz that I had. I tried scratching it with quartz and I could not, but I was able to scratch quartz with it. I also tried scratching with Morganite and even Topaz but the scratching edges crush before scratching this specimen. The surface (I think it is called luster) sometimes reminds me of Obsidian. I attach some photos.

Thanks and regards,
Andreu
Barcelona

[Josele]

Hola Andreu, welcome to FMF.
Some pics seem show cleavage planes and others show conchoidal fracture...
Without reconocible faces is hard to say what it could be.
Do you know the locality of origin?
Where it was bought?

[Andreu]

Hello Josele,

Thanks for your answer!

I have no idea where it comes from. I bought it in the annual fair in Narbonne / France, at the stalls where private collectors sell and exchange speciments. It costed me 5 EUR, so I assumed it was rose Quartz, but I have my doubts (and the seller also had them).

Regards
Andreu

[Pete Richards]

Without knowing where it is from, with no crystal form to go on, this is a puzzle that probably cannot be solved short of expensive tests like x-ray analysis. Indices of refraction or density might distinguish between the two, if you can find someone to do those tests. These two minerals are not greatly different in either of these properties, which makes a definite determination quite difficult. Perhaps the best optical criterion is that quartz is uniaxial positive but beryl is uniaxial negative.

In my experience, hardness tests with relatively hard minerals (quartz (7) or harder) are difficult to do reliably, exactly because of the crumbling you mention of the mineral that is supposed to do the scratching.

This looks like a lot of rose quartz I have seen. I haven't seen enough morganite to say whether it looks like morganite or not.

I would think the best indicator of its identity is the price you paid for it. I suspect the dealer was playing games with you when (s)he supported your doubts about the identity. "Wow, I'm not sure. You might have found a real bargain here!".

[Volkmar Stingl]

Clearly rose quartz!

[SteveB]

I would be confident it was rose quartz and I suspect Pete is correct about the seller playing games with you as they do. Might even be a cast off from Chinese quartz manufacturing process.

Still try an acid test anyway and see if you get any reaction and I suggest you buy a good set of mineral hardness scribes rather than relying on pieces of other minerals which is ONLY meant to be a simple “in the field quick and dirty estimation test” anyway. Its not a real test that is used in mineral identification. Besides it's not a scratch that you are looking for to make determination, sound plays a part too.

[Rugie]

Why don't you try fusibility? Beryl (morganite) is difficultly fusible while Quartz is infusible.

[Jordi Fabre]

[SteveB]

[Andreu]

Thank you all for your answers and suggestions!

So rose Quartz!

Regarding the probes for scratching, I will consider it. Spending 100EUR in a nice specimen is ok but for the scratch probes I feel it a bit painful :-)

Andreu