Baltic vs. Dominican

Baltic Amber -- "Absolutely, the finest and …the rarest amber of all."
Nevertheless, often beautiful green amber is found at malls and flea markets around the world at extremely low prices.

How is this possible, you wonder?

Just as many other gems are treated and stabilized to bring out luster and shine, the same treatments are used on amber. Amber is heated to change water bubbles, to discoid fractures, or to produce the "sun spangles" (flints). Cloudy amber, with tiny gas bubbles, may be clarified in a vacuum chamber (autoclaved). Sometimes the back of an amber cabochon would be painted (even with car paint) and re-heated to give a certain color to the piece.

Pressed amber (from small pieces, meal and rejects) and "ambroid" (pieces of amber imbedded in a plastic) are commonly found on the market. Pressed amber is made out of small pieces of amber that have been melted together under high pressure. Pressed amber is also called "genuine amber". It is a legal way of cheating and it is hard to discern the illusion except for the price. Pressed amber is generally very even in color the way you can see it in commercially available Baltic amber jewelry. Natural amber is never as even, since Mother Nature does not industrialize colors or shapes. The best varieties of the pressed amber are not discernible from the natural opaque amber and are used for jewellery production.

Don't be surprised: All this has a long tradition in the Baltic's. There is even the story that in the first century, Baltic amber was boiled in the fat of a suckling pig. Also see: Colors of Amber

True, Baltic amber has been known since the dawn of history. Also see: History of Amber But this does not mean that it is the only amber around; neither is it the oldest. Some Amber is considered to be up to 345,000,000 years old (Northumberland USA). Compared with this, both, Dominican (up to 30 mio) and Baltic amber (50 mio) are "babies" and have no reason to be dickering over a couple of million years here and there. Also see: Geography & Age of Amber

Natural Amber from the Baltic regions was and is beautiful and extraordinary, full of folklore and history. It still has the fame of the mystic, sacred material of the old that carries on.

But, Alas!, natural Baltic amber in it's original form is sometimes difficult to find on the market today, when everything is a matter of price and competition, pushed up with much publicity.

Most of what you find these days is an industrialized product.



Industrial open pit exploitation of amber in the Kaliningrad region


Dominican Amber-- By some it is not even considered "Amber" but "Retinite". See Chemistry of Amber

Dominican amber is only a major source of amber during the last 50 years, although its existence has been known about since the times of the descovery of the island by Christopher Colombus. There is not much publicity, some people don't even know about it.

The outcrop is much less than Baltic amber, it is rare in the true meaning and not all over the world. Hence, it is not the amber jewelry you will see in the Supermarket next door.

Industrialized? No way. Visit a Dominican amber mine CLICK HERE



Dominican amber is found in a wide range of natural colors, some exclusively Dominican, wich also places it as a class apart. Dominican amber is generally not enhanced by heat and oil treatment or autoclaved. It is cut and polished fossil resin, just the way it comes from the mines. True, it might be a bit more expensive, because it is not industrialized. It is more like "hand made" and original.

The occurrence of insects in Dominican Amber is about 10 times higher than in Baltic amber. Dominican amber is also 90 percent more transparent. Therefore, inclusions are more visible. See also Fossils in Dominican Amber

Amber from the Dominican Republic is a bit softer than the older sister from the Baltic, but can be cut and polished with much success. See also Cut and Polished Dominican Amber

Especially Asian craftsmen make excellent figures with this material.




Click on the pictures to enlarge


To sum it up:
If you don't mind industrialized, enhanced and treated amber, and if the price is an important criteria, go for Baltic amber, it surely is beautiful. If you want Amber in it's original form, made by Nature, you might want to decide for Dominican Amber.

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.


More references see at Amber Literature Links