Amber Gemstone Guide: Types, Colours, Real vs Fake and Care

What is an amber gemstone?

Amber is fossilised tree resin: the sticky sap some trees ooze to seal a wound, buried and slowly hardened over millions of years. Because it comes from a living thing rather than from rock, gemologists call it an organic gem, in the same family as pearl, coral and jet. It has no crystal structure at all. Gemologists describe it as amorphous, meaning its molecules are tangled like a plastic rather than lined up like the crystals in a sapphire or quartz.

That sets amber apart from almost everything else in our wider guide to coloured gemstones. Even stones that feel soft and natural, such as jadeite and nephrite jade, are rocks made of interlocking mineral crystals. Amber is a natural polymer, a long-chain organic compound, which is why it feels warm in the hand, weighs very little and can pick up a static charge. Rub a piece on wool and it will lift scraps of paper; the ancient Greek word for amber, 'elektron', is where our word electricity comes from.

In gem terms, amber has a refractive index (how strongly it bends light) of about 1.54, a specific gravity (its weight compared with the same volume of water) of about 1.05–1.10, and a hardness of only 2–2.5 on the Mohs scale. If any of those terms are new, our glossary of gem and jewellery terms explains them in plain English.

How does amber form, and how is it different from copal?

Resin starts soft and full of volatile oils, the compounds that give a pine forest its smell. Once it is buried in sediment, away from air, those oils slowly escape and the molecules link together into longer and longer chains, a process called polymerisation. Over millions of years the resin becomes harder, less soluble and more stable. That is amber.

Partway along that path sits copal: resin that has hardened but not fully polymerised. There is no single agreed age cut-off, but copal is usually tens of thousands to a few million years old, compared with tens of millions for amber. Copal looks very similar, especially in clear yellow pieces, and it is often sold cheaply as amber or used to make pieces with suspiciously perfect insects inside.

For a sense of scale, even the oldest amber is young by gem standards. Some zircon crystals from Western Australia's Jack Hills are over 4 billion years old, roughly 40 times older than the most ancient amber used in jewellery.

Where does amber come from, and is there amber in Australia?

Amber has been found on every continent, but only a few deposits produce enough clear, sizeable material for jewellery. Where a piece comes from affects its age, colour, inclusions and price.

Baltic amber is what most Australians will see in shops. Its official mineral name is succinite, because it contains about 3–8% succinic acid, an organic acid that helps laboratories confirm its origin. Much of it is dug from a glauconite-rich sediment layer locally called blue earth, although pieces still wash up on Baltic beaches after storms.

Australia does have amber, though few people know it. Palaeontologists have recovered pieces from coastal cliffs around Anglesea in Victoria and from western Tasmania, some containing tiny fossil insects, spiders and plant fragments from when Australia was still joined to Antarctica. These finds matter greatly to science, because fossil resin from the old southern supercontinent of Gondwana is rare. The pieces are small, though, and there is no commercial Australian amber field, so any amber in Australian jewellery has almost certainly been imported.

What colours does amber come in, including blue amber?

Most people picture honey-yellow, but amber ranges widely. Colour comes from the original resin, from tiny bubbles and from oxidation, the slow reaction with air that darkens amber over decades.

• Yellow and honey: the classic colour, from pale lemon to deep gold.
• Cognac: a warm orange-brown, one of the most popular Baltic shades.
• Cherry or red: deep red-brown, often the result of natural oxidation or heat treatment.
• Butterscotch or egg-yolk: opaque yellow, cloudy from millions of microscopic bubbles; prized in older Baltic bead necklaces.
• White or bone: very opaque, almost chalky, and less common.
• Green: rare naturally; most green amber in shops has been heat and pressure treated, then set over a dark backing.
• Blue: mainly from the Dominican Republic; it looks golden when light shines through it, but shows a blue glow when viewed against a dark background in daylight and under ultraviolet.

Blue amber's colour is fluorescence: compounds in the resin absorb ultraviolet light and give it back as visible blue. It is quite a different effect from the flash of labradorite, whose colour comes from light interference, or the soft floating glow of the adularescence seen in moonstone. Hold Dominican blue amber against something dark in sunlight to see it best.

If you love amber's golden tones but want a harder stone, look at citrine, the yellow to orange quartz, or ametrine, which blends golden citrine and purple in one crystal. Both are quartz, at 7 on the Mohs scale, and together with purple amethyst quartz they cover much of the warm-to-violet colour range for far tougher everyday wear.

Why is amber with insects so valuable?

Amber is a time capsule. Insects, spiders, seeds, flowers, feathers and even small lizards were caught in flowing resin and preserved in three dimensions, sometimes down to individual hairs. For jewellery, a clear, well-placed insect can multiply the value of a piece many times over.

What makes an inclusion valuable:

• Completeness: a whole insect, legs and wings intact, is worth far more than a fragment.
• Clarity: clear amber around the inclusion, without cracks or heavy debris.
• Rarity: a common gnat or ant is affordable; a scorpion, vertebrate or rare insect group is a museum-level find.
• Natural pose: real trapped creatures often show signs of struggle, with bent legs or a trail of bubbles.

Be wary of large, perfectly posed insects in very clear, flawless material. That is the classic sign of a modern insect set in copal or plastic. A real inclusion usually has small air bubbles, flow lines or plant debris around it.

Is an amber gemstone tough enough for everyday wear?

Not for a ring you wear every day. At 2–2.5 on the Mohs scale, amber can be scratched by household dust (which contains quartz at 7), by a fingernail on a soft piece, and by other jewellery in a drawer. It also softens with heat, from about 150 °C, and reacts with solvents. It is lightweight and does not shatter easily, which is why it shines in large beads, pendants and earrings that do not take knocks.

Amber shares its care needs with other soft and porous stones, such as turquoise, which also absorbs oils and chemicals, and deep blue lapis lazuli. If you want a warm colour in a ring that will take daily wear, harder choices include violet-blue iolite, golden chrysoberyl, one of the toughest coloured gems, or lab-created moissanite, which also comes in yellow tones.

A note on amber teething necklaces. These are widely sold in Australia, but product safety regulators, including the ACCC, have warned parents about choking and strangulation risks, and there is no good evidence that amber relieves teething pain. Amber is a jewellery material for adults, not a health product.

Is amber treated, and what is pressed amber?

Yes, much of the amber sold today has been treated in some way. Most treatments are long accepted in the trade, but they should be disclosed because they affect value.

• Heating and autoclaving: heating amber under pressure, often in oil or inert gas, removes cloudy bubbles and clarifies it. The same process can create sun spangles, glittering disc-shaped stress cracks that look a little like the metallic platelets in sunstone. Sun spangles are almost always a sign of heat treatment.
• Surface darkening: controlled heating oxidises the surface to produce cognac, cherry or antique-looking tones.
• Green treatment: heat and pressure treatment creates a green tint, usually set over a black backing to deepen it.
• Coating: a thin lacquer or resin coating adds colour or shine; it can wear through.
• Pressed amber (ambroid): small chips and dust are heated and fused under pressure into larger blocks. It is still amber, but reconstructed, and worth much less than a single natural piece. Under magnification it shows flow lines, a granular or swirled structure and elongated bubbles.

A reputable seller should be able to tell you whether a piece is natural untreated amber, heat-treated amber or pressed amber. Baltic amber associations and gem labs use these same broad categories.

How can you tell if amber is real?

Amber has been imitated for over a century, first with celluloid and Bakelite, now with polyester and other resins, glass and copal. No single home test is conclusive, but together a few simple checks will catch most fakes.

For the float test, dissolve about 3 level tablespoons of salt in 250 mL of warm water. Amber should rise; glass and most plastics will stay on the bottom. Rinse the piece in fresh water afterwards. Because copal also floats, follow up with a drop of acetone on a hidden spot: amber stays smooth, copal turns sticky within seconds.

For a valuable piece, especially one with an inclusion, a gem laboratory can confirm amber with infrared spectroscopy, which reads the chemical fingerprint of the resin and can usually separate Baltic amber from other origins and from copal.

How much is an amber gemstone worth in Australia?

Amber is one of the more affordable natural gems, but prices range widely. What matters most is size, clarity, colour, whether it is a single natural piece or pressed, and above all inclusions. The metal adds to the price too: sterling silver is the usual choice, while 9 carat and 18 carat gold settings cost considerably more.

These are broad ranges only and move with the market and the metal price. Very cheap, very clear amber with a large insect is a warning sign rather than a bargain. Ask the seller whether the piece is natural or pressed, whether it has been heated or coated, and where it came from.

Because amber is soft, the setting does most of the protecting. A full bezel (a rim of metal around the edge) shields the stone's outline far better than claws, and a closed back can protect thin pieces. Drilled beads are best strung with a knot between each one, so they do not rub against each other.

How do you care for amber jewellery?

Amber lasts for generations if you treat it gently. Its main enemies are heat, solvents, hard knocks and abrasion. Like kunzite, which can fade in strong light, it is also better kept out of long, direct sunlight, which speeds up darkening and surface crazing.

1. Put it on last. Apply perfume, hairspray, sunscreen and moisturiser first and let them dry; alcohol and oils dull amber's surface.
2. Take it off for cleaning, swimming and the gym. Household chemicals, chlorine and sweat all attack the polish.
3. Clean it gently. Use lukewarm water with a drop of mild soap, then dry with a soft, lint-free cloth. Never use an ultrasonic or steam cleaner, and never use acetone or jewellery dips.
4. Restore the shine. Buff with a soft cloth; a tiny drop of olive oil, wiped off completely, can lift a dull surface.
5. Store it separately. Keep amber in a soft pouch or its own compartment, away from harder gems and metal chains that will scratch it.
6. Keep it cool. Avoid hot cars, saunas and sunny windowsills; sudden temperature changes can crack it.
7. Have settings checked. Ask a jeweller to check bezels and bead stringing every year or two, and have it repolished professionally if it is heavily scratched.