There are stones that are in demand all over the world due to their attractive appearance and unique healing properties. The demand for amber is growing every year. This mineral is relatively inexpensive, and therefore jewelry made from it is accessible to most people. Speaking about how much amber costs, the following is noteworthy: over the past 10 years, the cost of this unique mineral has increased by as much as 900%. This trend continues today.
sell amber
What are we getting?
- Raw and processed stones from small to large sizes;
- Finished items such as beads, necklaces, earrings, rings and cufflinks;
- amber beads, amber necklaces, earrings with amber, rings with amber, cufflinks with amber;
- Works made of amber in the form of chess, figures and various sculptures;
- Stones framed in precious metals (silver, gold, gilding);
- “Amber with a fly” (inclusion) - this phenomenon also occurs in nature. This is when an insect accidentally gets inside the stone and remains there forever. Also considered a particularly valuable case if it is not a fake;
- Pendants, pendants, rosaries - in these cases it is difficult to give an accurate estimate, since records will be kept not only of the cost of the stone itself, but also of the work of this or that “artist” - master.
- Photo frame
- Paintings and other objects of art and architectural structures;
Characteristics and properties of the stone
To determine how much raw amber costs, you need to look at its size and the presence of foreign inclusions. Various types of products from this stone are created mainly in Kaliningrad. Most of this product is sold in the city of St. Petersburg. The cost depends on the features of the products. The price of amber per gram can range from 30 to 150 rubles. When selling at retail, they may charge less per gram. This indicates the presence of pressed stone. Alternatively, it could also be a fake.
Amber is used to make various jewelry. But the scope of its application is not limited to this. It has many medicinal properties, which is why it is used in modern medicine. It is the raw material for the production of succinic acid. This is a good biostimulant. This is a product with the following properties:
- anti-stress;
- antitoxic;
- anti-inflammatory.
This is a cure for almost all diseases, according to traditional healers. A well-known recommendation is to wear amber pendants around the neck in the projection of the thyroid gland. The stone is effective for:
- skin and hair diseases;
- asthma and bronchitis;
- visual and hearing impairment;
- diseases of the nervous system.
Amber price
The cost of a stone can be influenced by: condition (are there any cracks, abrasions, chips), whether it is unique and genuine, also weight, framing and inlay, if any. In any case, it is unrealistic to evaluate amber on your own; you should contact a specialist.
The price of the product itself will be incredibly high if it was made during, say, the USSR or even earlier periods, but can be reduced if the stone is sold by the gram. The average cost for 1 gram of raw amber is approximately from 40 to 200 rubles; the finished product can be purchased for a minimum of 1000 and can reach hundreds of thousands!
The significance of amber products is not only material, but also cultural. It is valued all over the world, and large finds are still being discovered in the territory of the former Koenigsberg - present-day Kaliningrad (RF). In places where there are seas and coasts. Even if you walk along any Russian beach on an ordinary day, you can probably find a piece of this precious stone somewhere in the sand.
How much does amber cost?
It's of little use if you can't find a needle. There is an opinion in the scientific world that amber is the fossilized resin of coniferous trees. While the resin is liquid, it is viscous. Therefore, amber was found with dragonflies, beetles, and fern leaves enclosed inside it.
Having landed on the resin, they stuck to it and gradually sank into the tree sap. At this time, scientists are surprised by the absence of conifer needles inside the amber.
There is not a single find of a biogenic mineral with evidence that it is a particle of ancient pine trees. Perhaps the scientific world is waiting for a discovery that will change its view of the origin of amber, and at the same time, perhaps, change its price.
You can expect a decrease in the “rate”, or you can expect a jump. For those who prefer a bird in their hands, we provide an analysis of the cost of the solar mineral at the moment. Let's start with a market overview.
World amber market
There are amber deposits all over the world. The youngest specimens are 35,000,000 years old. The most ancient resin on earth dates back 140,000,000 years.
Samples are found in the Dominican Republic, Myanmar, Romania, Lebanon, Sicily, Mexico, and Canada. There are deposits in Japan, Tanzania, New Zealand, China and Greenland.
But the main reserves of the mineral are concentrated in the USA and the Baltic region. The latter includes Denmark, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Sweden and Russia.
In the USA, amber has been discovered in the states of Tennessee, Wyoming, Washington, North Carolina, Montana, Maryland and Massachusetts. It's worth adding California, New Jersey and Arkansas.
The map of the production of amber products and their export is different. By 2017, China became the market leader. In 2010, the turnover of fossilized resin in China was 1,000,000,000 yuan.
In 7 years, the figure has almost doubled. Growth is primarily related to domestic demand. The Chinese have moved away from traditional tastes, began to more actively express their status, and emphasize modernity.
Amber is an assistant in this. Within the country, from 4 to 10 tons of the mineral are mined per year. Another 50 tons of ornamental stone are imported from abroad.
They take advantage of offers from the Dominican Republic, Russia, and Poland. The Chinese interest in amber influenced its price tag. Let's find out how much a stone costs in China and abroad.
How much does amber cost on the world market?
In the question of how much natural amber costs , nuances are important. The most expensive stones are brought from the island of Haiti. This is the Dominican Republic.
Only there blue amber is mined. Special resins are harder than others. Therefore, blue amber is difficult to process, but jewelry made from the mineral is more durable than others, maintains aesthetics, and does not scratch.
Minerologists suggest that the bluestones contain volcanic rock. It can explain the hardness of the material and its inherent fluorescence.
In the Dominican Republic, the so-called raw fossil in an oxide film sells for about $300 for a fist-sized stone. The question of how much raw amber from the Dominican Republic costs outside the country is different. You have to overpay at least 20%.
Among typical golden amber, lemon-colored and almost milky samples are valued. These contain a high proportion of succinic acid. By the way, it got its name because it was isolated from fossilized resin. Later, succinic acid was found in cherries, apples, grapes, gooseberries, and sunflower seeds.
The substance is an antioxidant, regulates metabolic processes, strengthens the immune system. In general, lithotherapists advertised amber with a milky tone and lemon color, provoking an increase in prices for them.
The issue is especially relevant for the Chinese market, because alternative medicine is strong in the Celestial Empire. For a piece of milky amber the size of a fist, they give about 20,000 rubles. This is more than 300 dollars that they ask for blue resin in the Dominican Republic.
However, outside the mining state, the price tag for exotic amber is still higher than for white and lemon amber. How much a stone costs is , in general, a relative question.
For a 200-gram piece of milky amber they can ask for 36,000 rubles, that is, almost 600 dollars. The price is influenced by both the subjective demands of sellers and objective factors.
One of them is the transparency of the stone. Non-translucent samples are more valued. Transparent minerals are good for cutting because they strongly reflect light. Amber is not cut, at most it is polished. Therefore, cloudy pieces of the mineral are valued.
When figuring out how much real amber costs , it is also important to take into account its size. The larger the stone, the more expensive it is. Amber crumbs resemble coarse sand and cost a penny. Only large fossils include fragments of ancient flora and fauna.
Their presence in the stone increases its price several times. The specific cost depends on the type of inclusion. If a rare insect or plant from past eras is preserved inside a stone, hundreds of thousands of dollars will be paid for the sample.
If a small stick or piece of leaf is stuck in the resin, the price tag may be even lower than for pure amber. Amber is found not with internal inclusions, but with external imprints. Traces of the veins of a leaf or the mesh of dragonfly wings remain on the mineral.
Such “prints” add value to the stone. The same piece of milky amber the size of a fist and with the imprint of an ancient insect costs not 20,000 or even 35,000, but 150,000 rubles.
The world market has managed to divide amber from different deposits according to quality. Generalized data indicate, for example, that stones from the Kaliningrad region are approximately 30% cheaper than fossilized resin from the Baltic states.
Ukrainian samples are also valued. Among them, almost 90% are suitable for crafts. For comparison, Russian amber is used for jewelry only in the amount of 25-35% of the mined mass.
When wondering how much a gram of amber costs , we also come to an average figure of 2.5 dollars. In rubles it is about 150. We conclude how much a kilogram of amber costs . For 1,000 grams, they really ask for about 150,000 rubles.
Converting to dollars, we get 2,400. However, small fractions from 2 to 5 grams are sold for 13,000 rubles. In dollars, this is approximately 200. In jewelry, the cost of the mineral is often overstated. There is a markup for the work of jewelers. At the same time, the general public is interested in the price of amber specifically in jewelry. Let's satisfy your curiosity.
How much does amber cost in jewelry?
In jewelry, jewelry resin is used in two types. The first is untreated stone. This state emphasizes the naturalness of the raw material and its closeness to nature. Getting acquainted with prices, let's consider amber beads. How much do 50 cm ones cost? The price depends on the type of resin and the weight of the product.
If the mineral is brown or dark orange, they will ask about 1,500 rubles for a piece of jewelry weighing 26 grams. The pieces of stone will be Russian, weighing 0.4-0.5 grams.
If you take a 50-centimeter scattered necklace, in which different-sized pieces of amber are entangled in a web of thin fishing line, the cost of the jewelry will already be 2,500 rubles.
There is an additional charge for fashionable design. Let's add bead polishing to it, and we'll get the seller's request starting from 3,000 rubles. Are they asking for cheaper? It is worth doubting the authenticity of the amber. They can pass it off as a copal, for example. This is a processed legume resin.
She scratches herself with her fingernail. The hardness of true amber, 3 on the Mohs scale, does not allow this. Glass can also be passed off as amber. However, it is heavier than the biogenic mineral and colder than it. Amber has poor thermal conductivity. It is this that prevents the stone from giving off heat to the environment.
Amber is distinguished from plastic by scratching the beads with the tip of a knife. Natural stone crumbles, crumbling into dust. Elastic shavings remain in curls on the plastic. In addition, both plastic and glass sink in salt water. Amber in a salt solution floats to the surface.
However, there are exceptions to the rules. The density of some amber samples is 0.2 grams per cubic centimeter greater than salted water. This means that the beads may sink.
It is easier to check the authenticity of a mineral by electrifying it. Like frayed hair and balloons, amber attracts small pieces of paper. So, don't sell yourself short.
Finally, we note that the name of the ancient resin became the name of many enterprises, for example, the Oryol Watch Factory. He produced watches under the Yantar brand. How much do samples from the 70s cost? Around 2,000 rubles. True, there is no amber in wrist accessories.
Few people want to pay for a name, since the company’s watches, especially from a modern point of view, are not considered to be of high quality. The products contain a lot of copper and brass, and careless polishing is common.
Amber cost
Typically, amber has a transparent, whitish, orange, or yellow tint. But there are also rarer options; in color they can be blue stones, ruby stones or more whitish ones. Such shades can indicate deposits by country. Blue is most often found in North America, yellow in Russia, ruby in Asian countries. Colors also play some role in purchasing, and stone deposits and etymology will also be taken into account. You can also check your product based on the following factors:
- Natural stones are light in weight. If compared with a fake, the second one will be heavier
- The fake has a uniform consistency and the same color over the entire surface, there are no interesting tints.
- Amber cannot be “picked” or scratched
- When burning, a real stone will have a natural odor, while a fake will emit chemically offensive “odors”
Amber USSR
Export from Russia
Amber is also sometimes exported from the territory of the Russian Federation. It ends up in Poland or China. It is noteworthy that over 90% of the world's stone reserves are concentrated in the Kaliningrad region. But at the same time, the export of the mineral in unprocessed form outside the Russian Federation is prohibited. To do this you must have a special license. True, this does not really interfere with sellers and buyers.
Illegal mining in Ukraine
Well, how much does amber (unprocessed) cost, illegally exported abroad? In Ukraine, for example, this phenomenon occurs all the time. Poland, Russia and China are very happy to purchase this gem of organogenic formation.
At Ukrainian customs, amber is often discovered hidden in personal belongings from control. Smugglers also use special storage facilities made in the cavities of cars. The confiscated amber is transferred to the ownership of the state - to the “State Repository of Precious Stones”. On average, during the year, customs stops about 35 attempts to illegally move amber across the border. In 2015, for example, about 296 thousand kilograms of amber (about 10 million hryvnia) were seized at Volyn customs.
Features of amber
Amber is a fossilized resin from the fossil period. Depending on the mining area, the composition of the mineral may be different. For example, if we talk about Baltic amber, its composition is pine needle resin. Regarding age standards, the average age of amber is approximately 35 million years, and there are also specimens whose age is more than 100 million years. This stone is in the category with corals, agate, pearls.
The color range of amber is presented in the yellow range: orange, honey. There are specimens whose color can be almost milky, while others are brown and reddish. The blue and green tints of this stone are almost never found. Experts count a palette of 350 shades. Amber is characterized by multicolor, contrast and transitions. The most valuable in modern times is considered to be a reddish tint with yellow splashes, but at different times other colors were popular.
In terms of jewelry value, amber is classified as an ornamental stone; it is relatively soft and suitable for making jewelry and souvenirs. Illiquid amber can be processed and is used in the production of acids, insulators, and varnishes.
What is made from amber
Of course, you know about jewelry, all kinds of figurines and beautiful paintings made from sunstone. However, these are not all the ways to use amber. It is used to make cosmetics, natural products for rejuvenating and healing the body, high-tech materials for the military space industry, and much more.
On the basis of the Innovative Enterprise “Craft Settlement Kulikovo”, unique technologies for using amber fluorescence were introduced: when sunlight hits it, its properties are enhanced 30-fold. That is, you come into contact with modified energy. This is not mysticism at all. The energy is determined instrumentally - we can see the real glow of the stone. The main varieties of amber have their own radiation ranges. This could provide the impetus for scientific research into influencing humans in certain ways. That's why we say that amber can save humanity in the near future. And how is a question of science.
Research scientist S. Petrov (founder of the Sambia project)
On the basis of the cultural and educational center, under the leadership of the innovative scientist Sergei Petrov, pilot production has been established and training is being conducted on the use of amber innovative products. Among them, for example:
- Amber tea . Unique varieties of Baltic amber that have undergone technological processing and are added to regular black, green or red tea. This enriches the taste of the drink and makes it not just healthy, but healing.
- Amber elixir . In "Sambia" an old Prussian recipe for a unique tincture was recreated, which was used to treat in the Middle Ages at European courts. The scale of our own production for personal consumption is still small, and this unique product is definitely worth paying attention to. By the way, the Sambian elixir is noticeably different from other typical “amber tinctures”, which are similar to the stone only in color.
- Amber honey . To obtain this honey, the craftsman maintains its own apiary, and the bees are treated to aqueous solutions of natural succinic acid of their own production. The result is a magnificent product with unique healing properties.
In addition, they bake bread with amber, which does not spoil for more than a year - an indispensable thing on hikes. Fish marinated in amber vinegar is also impressive – it acquires a unique taste.
Cosmetics and perfumes
Amber extract is actively used in perfumery. Unique fragrances are created on its basis.
Natural amber cosmetics are made from a rare type of sunstone - bone amber. This means that there cannot be too much of it. So there are questions about the naturalness of cheap amber soap, of which there is so much on street counters in the Kaliningrad region.
Real amber cosmetics have unique properties and can solve a wide range of problems: treat skin diseases, burns, get rid of fungus, block unpleasant odors. And also keep your body and hair healthy.
So from Kaliningrad and neighboring cities it makes sense to bring natural preventive soap, amber powder, amber shampoo, which allows you not to wash your hair for up to 2 weeks, and other cosmetic products.
Medicines
Treatment paths, massage oils, massage balls are ideal innovative tools for solving health problems. In addition, there are special healing clothes with amber.
Amber products are available for external or internal use. All are unique in their own way, capable of rejuvenating and healing the body.
In science and technology
Electromagnetic dampers, insulators (thanks to which Vostok-1 flew into space) and other developments - amber is also involved in their production. And this is only a small part of the innovative developments.
In construction and design
Did you know that the violins of the famous Amati and Stradivarius were treated with amber varnish? That is why they have retained their unique acoustic properties to this day. Today, sunstone is used to produce unique products for protecting wooden surfaces from mold. And rooms decorated with amber are not only beautiful, but also useful.
And this is only a part of the areas in which solar Kaliningrad stone can be used.
Amber is seized in tons
However, it is not always possible to stop smugglers. Although customs officers try not to lose their vigilance. Most often, cases of illegal transportation of “sun stone” occur on the Polish-Ukrainian border. The largest number of attempts to violate the law were found in Biała Podlaska, Bialystok, Olystyn, Przemysl, and Warsaw. Smugglers know very well how much amber beads cost abroad. That is why they are trying to sell the stone for maximum profit.
How to distinguish from a fake
The surest way to choose natural stone is to buy products in certified stores. Unfortunately, counterfeits made from amber-like resins or other materials are often found in trays on the streets. However, there are at least 3 ways that will help you distinguish real amber from a fake on your own:
- Take the stone in your palm: the natural one should warm up from the heat of your body, the synthetic stone will remain the same.
- Rub the stone vigorously until it becomes very warm. Take a sniff: natural amber emits a subtle aroma of pine needles; artificial stone does not smell like that.
- At home, prepare a strong salt solution and dip a stone into it (this method is not suitable for checking the naturalness of jewelry framed with metals and any other parts). In the vast majority of cases, real amber will float to the surface, while synthetic amber will remain at the bottom.
Alternative Amber Museum
The cultural, educational and research project “Sambia” is not just a place where they “promote” amber products. It is focused on innovative developments and new technologies for using amber in everyday life. As a result, new production facilities are opened in Russia and abroad.
Excursions, educational programs, an exclusive collection of amber, a shop with unique products that we described above - a visit to the Sambia craft village, which is not far from Kaliningrad, is definitely worth it.
Amber is not just the main wealth of the Russian Baltic: the future lies with this stone. Be sure to bring a sunny decoration, a unique talisman or a useful amber product from Kaliningrad.
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