Be careful with bracelets in so-called natural amber or amber.

They are just fake.

Also check the providers, as soon as they receive a negative review, they stop there and they start under a different name.

Much comes from Lithuania.

Je hebt volkomen gelijk. Ik heb er nooit aan gedacht in de van Daalen te gaan zoeken.

Maar barnsteen is een volkomen goed en juist woord als je niet in de war wilt raken met de geurstof.

Je verbazing over die prijzen blijft terecht, soms heel eigenaardig. Het komt natuurlijk wel  voor dat een ethnische ketting uit bijvoorbeeld Marokko met o.a. kunsstof barnsteen kralen terecht voor heel veel geld wordt verkocht. De goede oude exemplaren hebben zelden echt barnstaan kralen. Maar ook veelal gesmolten en in een mal gevormde kopal kralen. 

Dit maakt het best lastig of onmogelijk om van een foto te beoordelen wat wat is.

Bakelite kralen hebben best waarde de phenolic resin kralen zijn vaak mooi om te zien maar goedkoper.

You are absolutely right. I never thought of looking in the van Daalen.

But amber is a perfectly good and correct word if you don't want to get confused with the fragrance.

Your surprise about those prices remains justified, sometimes very strange. It does of course happen that an ethnic necklace from, for example, Morocco with, among other things, plastic amber beads is sold for a lot of money. The good old ones rarely have really amber beads. But also mostly melted and molded copal beads.

This makes it quite difficult or impossible to judge what is what from a photo.

Bakelite beads have the best value, the phenolic resin beads are often beautiful to look at but cheaper.

Maybe because the most famous dictionary in the Netherlands says so ?

How come many people think that amber is the same as amber?

They are confused with the English word!

Amber is not made into jewelry it is a fragrance (gray to dark gray) and comes from a sperm whale.

And those who criticize the so-called amber are right, it is often copal (at best) or bakelite (also old) or very often phenolic resin or other plastic.

Ik ben steeds weer verbaasd over hoge prijzen die gehaald worden op barnsteen waarvan ik denk dat het geen echte barnsteen is.

Als voorbeeld haal ik even dit kavel aan:

http://veiling.catawiki.be/kavels/2877795-barnsteen-kralen-ketting-grote-olijfvormige-kralen

Ik heb een 5 tal van die identieke kettingen hier, maar het is een soort bakeliet, alles is identiek, komen uit zeer oude inboedels, jaren 50.

De amber test gedaan met blacklight, met zoutwater, met statische elektriciteit.  Die van mij zijn fake.

Wat als je 1400 euro betaald aan een partikulier die denkt dat het amber is en ook de expert die op foto kan bepalen of het echt amber is ?

Ik heb er m'n twijfels over.

I am always amazed at the high prices that are achieved on amber that I don't think is real amber.

As an example I will quote this lot:

http://veiling.catawiki.be/kavels/2877795-amber-beads-necklace-large-olive-shaped-beads

I have 5 of those identical chains here, but it is a kind of bakelite, everything is identical, come from very old household effects, 1950s.

The amber test done with black light, with salt water, with static electricity. Mine are fake.

What if you paid 1400 euros to a private individual who thinks it is amber and also the expert who can determine on a photo whether it is really amber?

I have my doubts about it.

If you think that something has been entered incorrectly in the CataWiki Catalog, you can already change it yourself. That's the beauty of CataWiki.

The problem, however, is that there are also many duplicate items or items that have been picked and used from other sites. Then an administrator can intervene quickly by rejecting such an item and then he disappears from the Catalog. In addition, the administrator can also send a message to the importer and report what he did wrong.

If something is rejected, this has major consequences for the collector and certainly for the Catalog. It is therefore important that the administrators are experts in that field. As mentioned, Catawiki is always looking for new administrators, so you can register by sending an email to Arco (at) Catawiki.nl.

I am very curious and I hope you will cooperate. to make CatWiki a better Catalog.

Good luck and above all, have fun!

I also want to contribute. My specialty is shark teeth.

I already saw that there are several teeth that have been incorrectly identified.

(So work to be done ;-))

That's right, is a fossil shark tooth. 4 cm is quite a large tooth. In Zeeland (Zeeuws Vlaanderen) you can find quite a lot of fossil shark teeth on the beach. These are usually a lot smaller 1-1.5 cm.

I think an Isurus hastalis .. common shark tooth.