SilverStones

There are different types of natural turquoise stones. There is Sleeping Beauty turquoise that is solid sky blue in color. Chinese turquoise has more of a green tint and has a brown matrix but sometime this turquoise has blue stones in the strand. Then, there is green turquoise that comes from Taiwan. There is also American turquoise; most of this turquoise is recycled from older jewelry due to over mining. You will want to dig through my blogs to find another article I wrote showing the difference between natural turquoise and the stones dyed to look like turquoise.

The prices of these stone vary greatly. I am basing these prices on a 6mm round stone with a strand length of 16″, these are wholesale prices. The least expensive is green turquoise from Taiwan, a stand of this cost around $10. Chinese turquoise cost around $30 a strand. Sleeping Beauty turquoise (sit down, you might faint) cost around $200 a strand! Why does Sleeping Beauty turquoise cost so much? I suspect the price is due to over mining and it is hard to come by. Like everything else supply and demand increases the price, the harder it is to get the more it costs.

The turquoise jewelry shown here is what Sleeping Beauty turquoise looks like (even though it didn’t say that was what the stone is). It’s hard to tell natural turquoise stones from stones dyed to look like turquoise, so be an informed shopper and don’t get ripped off.

How to identify real Turquoise

Shown above is an example of a genuine Chinese Turquoise stone. Chinese Turquoise can be blue or green with a dark brown or black matrix, sometime no matrix at all. Other types of Turquoise are Sleeping Beauty Turquoise, which is a solid sky blue color, and American Turquoise. Sleeping Beauty Turquoise is extremely expensive and hard to find. American Turquoise is very rare due to the over mining in the 60′s and 70′s. Jewelry that is made with American Turquoise is usually remade from older pieces. Chinese Turquoise is quite expensive and what is on the market today is usually Chinese Turquoise.

Turquoise that is referred to as simulated is not Turquoise at all but dyed the color of turquoise. Two examples above show simulated Turquoise, this is dyed Howlite and Magnesite, as you can see the color of these stones are weak in value and the streaks are more of a light brown. These fake stones have a different matrix pattern from genuine Turquoise stones.

You will find Turquoise jewelry that claims to be Turquoise and is often priced the same. Real Turquoise stones are not cheap. Know what you’re buying and keep a look out for stones dyed to look like Turquoise.