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  2. Touchstone (assaying tool) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchstone_(assaying_tool)

    This, in turn, led to the widespread adoption of gold as a standard of exchange. Although mixing gold with less expensive materials was common in coinage, using a touchstone one could easily determine the quantity of gold in the coin, and thereby calculate its intrinsic worth.

  3. Inclusion (mineral) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusion_(mineral)

    The term three phase relates to the three phases of matter, solid, liquid, and gas. This is a three phase inclusion in rock crystal quartz. The solid is a black material that is of bituminous origin. The liquid encased is petroleum, and the gas bubble is methane. Inclusions are one of the most important factors when it comes to gem valuation.

  4. Hierarchy of precious substances - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy_of_precious...

    The measurement of sales of popular music starts high relative to the wedding anniversary scale, concentrating on gold and platinum (see gold album).Likewise, credit card companies usually have a "gold card" and a "platinum card" (many formerly had a "silver card" then followed by a "gold card", but due to similarity in appearance between silver and platinum these were often discontinued with ...

  5. Obsidian - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian

    In some stones, the inclusion of small, white, radially clustered crystals (spherulites) of the mineral cristobalite in the black glass produce a blotchy or snowflake pattern (snowflake obsidian). Obsidian may contain patterns of gas bubbles remaining from the lava flow, aligned along layers created as the molten rock was flowing before being ...

  6. Goldstone (glass) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldstone_(glass)

    Goldstone Goldstone glass under magnification. Goldstone is a type of glittering glass made in a low-oxygen reducing atmosphere.The finished product can take a smooth polish and be carved into beads, figurines, or other artifacts suitable for semiprecious stone, and in fact goldstone is often mistaken for or misrepresented as a natural material.

  7. Jet (gemstone) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_(gemstone)

    Jet is a type of lignite, [1] the lowest rank of coal, and is a gemstone.Unlike many gemstones, jet is not a mineral, but is rather a mineraloid. [2] It is derived from wood that has changed under extreme pressure.

  8. Carat (mass) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carat_(mass)

    Gold fineness in carats comes from carats and grains of gold in a solidus of coin. The conversion rates 1 solidus = 24 carats, 1 carat = 4 grains still stand. [ 16 ] Woolhouse's Measures, Weights and Moneys of All Nations [ 17 ] gives gold fineness in carats of 4 grains, and silver in troy pounds [ 17 ] of 12 troy ounces of 20 pennyweight each.

  9. Apache tears - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_tears

    Apache tears are rounded pebbles of obsidian or "obsidianites" composed of black or dark-colored natural volcanic glass, usually of rhyolitic composition and bearing conchoidal fracture. Also known by the lithologic term marekanite , this variety of obsidian occurs as subrounded to subangular bodies up to about 2 in (51 mm) in diameter, often ...