African Turquoise is not turquoise at all.
It is a type of jasper found in Africa and is often dyed to
achieve a turquoise-like color. Enhancing its role as a turquoise
substitute is its matrix, which also resembles turquoise matrix.
African turquoise is
beautiful in its own right. We have sold it ourselves. The
problem arises when it is sold as genuine turquoise. Our informal
survey suggests that perhaps one-half of the sites on the
Internet selling "African Turquoise" do not acknowledge
that the item is actually a turquoise substitute. We have
no way of knowing if this is being done out of ignorance or
to misrepresent the product. Turquoise is rare; jasper is
abundant. One should expect to pay up only for the former
.
So
then, what is jasper? Jasper is a form of chalcedony. Another
form of chalcedony is agate. The differences between jasper
and agate is that jaspers (there are many of them) have less
regular patterns and are more opaque. Jaspers are opaque because
they contain microscopic grains of crystalline quartz, whereas
the quarts in agate are more fiber-like. Jaspers take on varying
colors depending on the other minerals present at the site
of formation. One advantage of African jasper is that it is
harder than turquoise.
