Fakebusters: Malachite 2

So, it looks like we need to revisit malachite again Fakebusters, because the fakes are flooding in! (See part 1 here)

This is our first fake, set in jewellery once again. You can see that the "malachite" is dominated by an odd lime green colour not seen in real malachite. There is also too little differentiation between the layers of colour, with dark green and light green sandwiched up together. 

This hideous twofer has bizarre bands of lime green and black, neither of which normally occur on malachite. The strange patterning is a sign of a fake too, as malachite usually grows in a botryoidal formation, forming more rounded patterns.

This is another fake similar to the first. While they may be easy to spot on these larger examples, it is a lot harder to spot on beads for instance. 

This is a real obvious, truly painful fake. The colours do just look utterly artificial, and I would worry about burning off toxic chemicals from the pipe itself.

This larger fake is a great way to see the wrongness of the artificial malachite. The fact that it is literally made from repetitive layers of light green, dark green and green is truly cringey.  These fakes are usually made from resin, and often feel a lot lighter in weight than real malachite.

Now for some real examples! 

Just remember, although these fakes look pretty obvious when presented in this way, they can be hard to spot online, especially as some sellers on online auction sites tend to hide the fakery. Beads are by far the worst, and the market is utterly flooded by them. 

Note the lovely patterned botryoidal layers on these two, and the more complex gradients of colour!