I'm Sure This Fish Stinks From The Head Down But Hey You Never Know...Amethyst? Pics...

[Critterhunter]

Found this one a while back at a very old park, right up against an old oak tree. I thought nothing of it since it appears to be some kind of junk metal and so figured the "gem" in the middle was just red glass, but back then somebody mentioned that it might be an amethyst maybe. Probably just glass I'm sure, but it does look old and ornate enough that I figured might as well ask opinions on it.

You can see I never did clean it well as it still has dirt clinging to it, along with the remnants of what looks like white paint it was once painted with. The camera does not do the "stone" justice in terms of it's color. What looks like imperfections on it are just dirt. If I hold it up to a light it's got a nice rich red color to it but can be seen through somewhat. I should have taken some pictures of the backside because the "stone" is bigger than it appears to be from the front. The last picture makes the pendant look bigger than it actually is...
[attachment 260421 IMG_2089.jpg][attachment 260422 IMG_2092.jpg][attachment 260423 IMG_2098.jpg]

 

[Birdseed]

CH

The stone is much too red for amethyst, could be zircon or garnet though. If you could post a photo taken in shaded daylight I could get a better idea of the color. Have a look at the stone through a magnifier or mineral lens of about 10X power. If the facets all line up at the corners very accurately and if there are no chips on the facet edges, the stone may have been cut professionally, if the facets are all over the place it may just be glass.
It is an intriguing piece.

Pete

 

[Critterhunter]

Thanks for the info. I just held it up in decent light and the "stone" looks much lighter in color than the pictures show. I'll check out the stuff you said to look for and get back to you, along with some better pics here if I can. Thanks again...

 

[Critterhunter]

OK, ain't got around to doing all you requested yet, but I did look very close at the lines on the "stone" under good light, and I can see no signs of chipping, flaking, or sloppy work on that. Not being a gem expert I have no idea what that might mean, but I can at least say all the "lines" at the edges look sharp like a razor here. Where they meet at the top and bottom? Covered by the pendent it's self I think, or at least in the time I gave it I couldn't phantom such things, but I'll look again tomorrow and also try to give some pics as you requested and such.

After closer inspection/introspection, I don't think the "rock" looks nearly as dark as the pics show. If I'm under decent light in the room it's more lighter of a color and I can see fairly well through that red, like say a very light mixed glass of red koolaid, as about the best comparison I can give here, which ain't much I know...

Thanks again and further info in a day or two here...

 

[edjcox]

See if it glows in ultravioet light. Might be ruby...

 

[Critterhunter]

A long time friend I detect with is a gold smith (he makes, fixes, repairs, sizes jewelry). He lives a good clip away so hadn't brought it to him to inspect, but tomorrow I'll be dropping it off there to put this thing to rest one way or the other. Thanks for all the input/help and I'll chime back with the word. Probably nothing special but hey if I don't ask then I don't know. Stranger things have happened anyway, so worth a shot having it looked at to see what the deal is.

 

[Ant]

Garnet...

 

[Critterhunter]

Welp, my gold smith friend looked over the fish and said that the red stone is indeed an Amethyst. That's the good news. The bad news is they are pretty much worthless. I always had thought they had some decent value but he said he's got a whole drawer full of them.

Oh well, at least it ain't glass. I still think it's one of my favorite finds over the years in terms of something that I suspect is very old, based on it's ornate construction and where I found it. I'm going to probably paint it and then give it to a niece as a gift she can wear on a necklace.

Speaking of her, I had given her a nice antique looking silver ring a year or two back I hand found detecting, and the other day I asked if I could borrow it so I could take a picture of it to add to my collection of things. Her young son came up and remarked that he had taken it to school a few months back for I would assume show and tell, and that when he was running with it in the snow in front of the school to her car being picked up to go home, he slipped in the snow and lost it.

Turns out it was in snow over grass, and she saw him fall and lose it, and so I asked him if he remembers where he fell. He said yes, and that it was near a large tree, so he's going to draw me a little map to the best of his (and her) recolection of where he fell and I'm going to see if I can find the ring for her.

Since it's silver, it'll read right up in the coin range, and since it was only dropped a few months ago, I plan to lower the sensitivity all the way down on my GT and swing the coil a decent height off the ground along with increasing discrimination all the way up, to avoid anything but a high conductor that is laying right in the grass or very top 1" or so of soil.

If and when I find the ring I'll take some pics to post, of a ring that was found twice. The idea and thought of that is pretty neat in a way...