Orange rock ID needed

jolie_amethyst

[solved] Orange rock ID needed

EDIT 9/12/2015: per a local rock shop, it's peach aventurine!
--------------------
Found these in a two pound batch of miscellaneous tumbled stones listed as "from Africa & Brazil". Given that I have so many, I'd like to be able to label these beyond "orange rocks". LOL Stones took a nice polish, very slick to the touch, have low transparency (a couple are barely translucent throughout, most have lightly translucent edges where the stone is thinnest), and to the naked eye, have no distinct banding, just slight changes in shading of color.

Let me know if bigger images are needed, these were downsized to fit better inline in the thread.

White background, filtered early afternoon sun. Closest to accurate color, ranging from pinkish peach to pumpkin.

oV0HDj4.jpg


Black background, filtered shade. Color bleached out in image a bit to show more detail of the variations in color within and between stones.

ePfUNfs.jpg


My first thought is orange/peach aventurine as I've found a few pics of that that seem closest to these, but honestly all colors of aventurine have so many variations in online images that I just don't know, and I'm not familiar enough in person with those to feel confident. There was also a batch of medium green stones included with exactly the same characteristics, that I think probably are green aventurine. I'm not seeing enough flash to think sunstone, though it's close to the same shade as the dark orange flecks present in my small sunstone wands.

Edited to add: OK, in direct full sun, the probable green aventurine does show the mica-flecked shimmer pretty clearly, enough so that I was able to move a couple questionable stones into or out of that pile. On these orange ones, there's a similar shimmer, but it's not as pronounced as on the green, and definitely not as pronounced as sunstone. Still undecided and looking for opinions.

Also, I'm now completely sun-blind. ;)
 

pink daliha

I'm no expert, but they look like peach Adventurines to me. Sunstone is very clear, light orange and almost quartz-like. It also has a almost glittery effect in sunlight (different from these).

Happy Rockhounding!
 

daphne

They look beautiful, I can almost feel the positive energy from your pictures.
Some of them look definitively like Sunstone.
 

Aster Breo

I'm no expert, but they look like peach Adventurines to me. Sunstone is very clear, light orange and almost quartz-like. It also has a almost glittery effect in sunlight (different from these).

Happy Rockhounding!

I think the posted pics are probably aventurine, too.

But sunshine is not always transparent. There is some material that is an opaque orange.

Sunstone also does not always have schiller (the sparkly inclusions, usually tiny copper plates). I have a gorgeous Oregon sunstone that has no schiller, and another gorgeous Tanzanian sunstone that's full of it.

I might have a little weakness for sunstone. ;-)
 

jolie_amethyst

I think the posted pics are probably aventurine, too.

But sunshine is not always transparent. There is some material that is an opaque orange.

Sunstone also does not always have schiller (the sparkly inclusions, usually tiny copper plates). I have a gorgeous Oregon sunstone that has no schiller, and another gorgeous Tanzanian sunstone that's full of it.

I might have a little weakness for sunstone. ;-)

LOL--sounds like your weakness for sunstone is similar to mine for smoky quartz and untreated citrine. I feel like it's a struggle to pass up buying pieces of either! :joke:

On the plus side, both sunstone and peach aventurine are listed as stones for promoting creativity, so it sounds like either way, I can't lose on this one as far as my personal needs go. I've tucked a piece into the bag I carry with me, and added three more to my creativity grid when I recast it this afternoon. Next time I'm at a rock & gem store or show, I can perhaps compare my stones with a known piece for a more solid ID.

(This has made me rethink my crystal labelling options. I'm at the point where I can't necessarily keep all of these crystals ID'd in my head anymore. So I did take them time to label two recent specimen acquisitions properly with museum-type labels, and I'm thinking out how best to organize loose tumblestones like these going forward.)
 

Aster Breo

But sunshine is not always transparent. There is some material that is an opaque orange.

Arrrgh! Autocorrect.

Obviously, I meant sunSTONE.

SunSHINE usually is transparent. ;-)
 

Mrsdavid

Sandstone .
 

jolie_amethyst

Sandstone .

Thanks for the possibility! Unfortunately, neither ordinary sandstone nor the so-called "golden sandstone" (aka goldstone) fits well in this case. It's definitely not goldstone; I've compared them side by side with a bit of that. Nowhere near the sparkle or the uniformity of color you get from goldstone, plus that's a manmade creation--and this was an all natural batch of stones from a reliable supplier.

Ordinary sandstone might be possible, but it's pretty doubtful from what I know. It's very rare to find polished tumbles of it because it tends to crumble into bits of grit in a tumbler & will ruin the shine on any other rocks in the batch--these kinds of mixed stone lots are usually all tumbled together, so that would affect all of them. Any tumbles you do find are dull in finish or have been treated with a sealant, which still won't produce a mirror-like gloss. The stones I have are very shiny, and it would be too labor intensive to do that kind of polish for small tumbles--typically that sort of finish is reserved for lovely expensive countertops and such, where you can offset the cost of that manual labor with a higher price.

And now I want a nice sandstone table or something. I forgot just how gorgeous that rock can be!
 

Mrsdavid

I've seen a bunch of sandstone posted by a lot of my crystal friends on Instagram. I just assumed this was that. .. Not all sandstone is man made.


And ya. I feel you on a sandstone table. Gorgeous right?!
 

Mrsdavid

Although there doesn't seem to be as much ' glitter'. As you see from the feldspar and Quartz found in sandstone. .. ( it's always hard to tell from pics)