The Truth about
Green Caribbean Amber

On the market you will find a pale green amber called Caribbean Amber .

Some say, it's found on an "undisclosed small Caribbean island" or "discovered recently on one of the Caribbean islands". Sounds Caribbean-romantic, Disneyworld-Style, but far too mysterious to be true. The supplier will not tell you on what island, right?

Others state that Caribbean amber comes from the island of Dominica. Wrong again. (Maybe they muddle "Dominican Republic" with "Dominica" because of similar names.) But, there is no amber mined and exported from there. Check the Dominica Government Export Agency

What commonly is sold as "Caribbean Amber" is not natural, old, green "amber", but mostly enhanced (autoclaved = heated under pressure) Colombian copal (young amber). As is happens with many originals, copies are made for the gullible. See: "Caribbean Amber" at Wikipedia, Oneline Encyclopaedia

Then there is enhanced and artificially colored Baltic amber to resemble green amber, most of the times with beautiful "sun spangles" or "scales". Sometimes the "green" gems are even painted on the back with some black paste and then baked. See: "Brilliant Green Baltic Amber on Today's Market" by Amerheritage



The above is not natural, true green amber, just a man-made color variation of Colombian Copal or of the ordinary Baltic amber.


But, what you see on the left, is natural green amber. It is mined in the Dominican Repubic. It is the True Green Caribbean Amber.

Welcome to

Caribbean Green Amber

Go directly to >>> Our Catalog
or learn about Caribbean Green Amber.

Does Natural Caribbean Green Amber exist?

Yes. It does.




NATURAL GREEN AMBER is found in the Caribbean, here, on the island "La Hispaniola", in the Dominican Republic.













And these are the facts:
Dominican amber is OLD amber, from 20 to 40 million years. It is fossilized tree resin from an ancient relative of a tropical species called "algarroba".

(See scientific reference literature at the foot of this page.)






We do not treat it, not enhance it, not heat it up or anything else. It is just the way it comes from the mines.

It is the true
Caribbean Green Amber.

(click to enlarge)







Only during the last 50 years, Dominican amber mines are a major source of amber, although its existence has been known since the times of the descovery of the island by Christopher Colombus.

The outcrop is much less than Baltic amber, therefore it is rare in the true meaning of the word and not found all over the world. In contrast to much amber on the market today, it has never been industrialized, enhanced, artificially colored, heat treated, boiled, or melted together.

And we have more than the green amber. We have natural blue, red, purple and of course, the regular "amber" amber.

It is the amber that still carries the tradition of being something special, accessible only for a few. Hence, it is not the amber you will see in the Supermarket jewelry store next door.

To sum it up in a general way:

* If you want to be sure that you get natural amber 100 % in it's original form, "Made by Nature", each piece an original, not treated in any way, we recommend Dominican Amber.

* If you want high quality NATURAL GREEN AMBER, Dominican amber is your ONLY choice.

References

Much information about Dominican Amber, its advantages and how it is mined, you will find in the book The Amber Forest: A Reconstruction of a Vanished World by George Poinar, Jr., and Roberta Poinar

You might also want to consult Discovering the lost world of the amber forests by the BBC Radio.

For more information also consult the following sites:

Caribbean Amber in Wikipedia
Dominican Amber in Wikipedia
Green Caribbean Amber
Natural Amber