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Real Vs. False Amber
Amber has been a commodity for a long time. When it was initially mined, there was no shortage of this Baltic gold. But as time went on and the amber nuggets were becoming scarce the price of amber began to increase, following the law of supply and demand. Because of this, some have begun production of false amber attempting to pass it off as the original stone formed 40-60 million years ago.
So how do you tell whether you are getting the real thing?
There are some tests which are relatively accurate but require you compromising the integrity of your piece, such as attempting to scratch the surface or placing a hot needle into the amber to test for density and smell.
The best way to "test" your amber without having to do any science experiments is to use your own eyes and look at the color. Typically false amber has a bright neon like color to it , can sometimes look too perfect and polished, and has a slightly different feel in the hand. With all the available resources online, even if you have never seen real amber you can do an image search or visit a respectable amber jewelry dealer and have them help you compare your piece to what you already know is authentic succinite.
The challenge with performing some of the other tests, such as the flotation test based on amber's density being similar to that of saltwater, is that unless you are dealing with only the piece of amber and nothing else, can you successfully perform these experiments. If you have a bracelet set in sterling silver, immersing it in saltwater is not going to help you determine the amber's authenticity because you have introduced another substance, the sterling silver.
To this day, the only scientifically guaranteed way to test the authenticity of amber is infrared spectroscopy, which is a method utilizing beams of light passing through a substance to identify its composition. This is not to say that the amber afficionado would not stand up to the test when examining impostors, because after seeing false amber once you become more apt at identifying it again, but the only way to satisfy a purely empirical mind is to put the piece to the spectroscopy test.
Here is a link to a fantastic article by Gabriela Gierlowski describing the Properties of Baltic Amber
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