Lab grown crystals being sold as natural on Ebay

[Ranger_Dave]

Here is one example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/408g-Clear-Natural-Green-Ghost-pyramid-QUARTZ-Crystal-Cluster-Specimen-/172080233897?hash=item2810c7fda9:g:2cYAAOSwvUlWqqw1

I can't find it now, but one of these had a picture of the bottom of the cluster. It had 3 parallel lines from the wire rack in rested on in the autoclave. These are pretty, but fakes. They took a plain cluster, probably from Madagascar and grew some new crystals on it.

[Ray880823]

I wish they would be honest about their crystals being lab grown, I am sure there is a market share for people who want a lab grown crystal, I know I am one of those, would make an interesting topical specimen in my collection.

[light house jack]

A friend of mine is a high end mineral dealer and he purchased a flat of crystals from Russia.  In the first specimen he put under a microscope, he found a human hair coming outside of the lab grown crystal. Buyer beware. Same for Lapis and Turquoise. I had a student bring a fist sized chunk of beautiful lapis that her son in the military in Afghanistan had sent her. It was covered with pyrite and deep blue. When we sawed it in half, it was a white rock with some very carefully applied coating on the outside.

[jakesrocks]

Trust the Chinese to try to con the mineral collector. They've been making fake fossils for years.  Be suspect of anything coming out of Morocco also. They've even been able to fool the experts with some of their fakes.

[55fossil]

   It is not just the Chinese. Rock and Gem magazine has been running an excellent series on "NOT" genuine gem stone. This is about all the created and recreated rocks being sold on the market today. Jasper, Turquoise and a host of rocks with names we all know. The articles explain the crushing, dyeing and other processes used to make these stones. Many are identical to another real stone, many of which are high priced.
    Even if you trust the guy you buy your stone from do you know if you can believe the three guys who bought and sold it before him? Nothing like the smell of glue when that turquoise is in the grinder. Anyway, I would advise anyone who can to look at the last two issues of Rock and Gem magazine.  Many of the stones are originally sold as manufactured and not dug from the earth. But they often have natural in their title because they ground up say some turquoise, added stuff to give it patterns and then through it in a pressure cooker. Then it hits the market and no one knows the truth anymore. Beware or be happy if you do not mind buying a created stone that is pretty. But please, be honest whether you sell it as rough, a slab or cabochon.

[tkcaz]

In Tucson I talked with someone who has cut turquoise for years. She said someone had shown her some new synthetic turquoise rough that she could not tell from real Sleeping Beauty. She said had it not been labeled synthetic, she would have believed was the real thing.