Moldavite

Photo provided by Jeffrey Blythe of a piece of fake moldavite sold to them.

Can you tell which of these are fake and which are real?


If not don't worry we have a guide for you, and were going to go through some of these pieces and show you the fakes and the real ones. 


Moldavite is a Tektite from Czech Republic it formed when a meteor hit the earth around 15 million years ago.


So why do people fake moldavite? The answer to that is the same as the cause and solution to many of life's problems....money, moldavite was always a rare crystal and cost a lot of money generally, however the recent activity on tiktok has caused a huge increase in the quantity needed and yet the supply is the same, driving the prices up, this in turn has caused more people to start doing fakes, and better ones as the payoff it better for it. 



Okay so now we know why its fakes, we now need to know how its faked. 
generally the cheaper fakes from china are made using green glass that it moulded to look similar to moldavite, it is then created en masse, this leads to some quite easy to spot fakes, they generally are lower quality and some we have seen even have lines showing where the 2 halves were stuck together. 
​
Unfortunately as prices have gone up the market has become flooded with better and better fakes, India in particular has started making some very good fakes, that even some experienced sellers have fallen for in the past. These are usually made using moulds of real moldavite pieces and they only make smaller numbers of them, this leads to better textures and less quantity of the same piece, this means that it can be harder to spot similar pieces and so one less flag is able to be raised. 



So what are the most popular questions we get asked about moldavite? Ask almost any seller and I'm sure they will have been asked if they have a certificate of authenticity, now on the surface you may think that a seller should be able to show a cert for something as expensive as a piece of moldavite, after all they can go for 100s of pounds for good large pieces, the trouble is that most of the crystals are smaller selling for around 20 to 50 pounds each. Now why is that an issue? simply put the major places that you can get a stone certified (such as the GIA for example) all charge lots of money for their services, the moldavite when we asked some of these places would have cost between 100 and 200 to be certified per piece, and there in lies the issue. No seller is going to pay £200 to get a piece of £20 moldavite certified. 

​
So then, if certificates are so expensive then why do some sellers have them? Well there's a few possibilities, 1st is that they are genuine and have very very expensive prices that cover the cost of the certificate, that's less likely than the next 2 options. 2nd is the possibility that the moldavite has been sent for testing, but only 2 or 3 of them, as a sample of the whole, and while this is a good way to get it cheaper and make it possible to get a good certificate, however for less trustworthy sellers this does open up the possibility that they send a few real pieces off and then are able to sell fakes with certificates. 
​3rd and most likely unfortunately is that the certificate is fake. As you can see in the image (below) 

---

Certificates can be faked, and while this is a very basic one, it took me about 1 minute on word, it is unfortunately as accurate as we have seen some certificates be, we have seen some with photos of fake moldavite claiming it was found in the USA and Australia- something which simply cannot be true- so you see that certificates can very easily be fakes, and unfortunately it is very common for sellers using these certificates to be selling fakes more often than not. 
This is not to say that all certificates are fakes but a large number are so you cant rely on them alone. 


The next question we get asked a lot is "my friend has a piece and it doesn't look the same, so is yours fake?" the simple answer is no, there are lots and lots of variations within moldavite and different localities can look very different to each other-more on this down below.

Spotting fakes

There are several ways to spot fakes or real moldavite:
​

​1st is the colour, while some variations in colour is normal, seeing some that are lime green or vibrant colours are usually not a good sign, now colour on its own cannot be used just look at these photos, they are similar in colour and yet only one is real. 


Normally moldavite is described as being an olive green colour, this colour can very from dark moss green- almost khaki in colour- to a bright lime coloured green, but normally they are an olive colour. 

The next is Texture, this is one of the easiest ways to spot fake moldavite, as one of the people who we talked to while making this blog post said 'If it looks like a melted gummy bear, its fake' and this is very true, fake moldavite has traditionally had a reputation for being shiny and wet looking, and while some genuine pieces can appear to fall into this category it should be very obvious that some are fake based on this alone, just look at these 2 images. (see below)


​

This photo is an example of vrabce moldavite, as you can see this piece has a slight shine to it which if going on texture alone a lot of people would assume is fake, however this piece is natural. 

Photo by Crystal Ki - Genuine Moldavite

This moldavite on the other hand falls firmly into the category of looking like a melted gummy bear, it looks wet, and almost gooie, which is not a good sig for moldavite, it shouldn't look like glass that has a shiny wet look, its okay to look a little shiny, but should never look as shiny as this one, notice also the lack of texture on this piece, there are some stunning pieces available with amazing textures, but texture is one of the hardest parts to fake and so is often one of the easiest ways to spot a fake. 

Photo by HoneyBeri Crafts (Erika) Showing us an example of Fake moldavite that they have been kind enough to share to spread awareness.

Bubbles and inclusions, all moldavite should have bubbles inside, if they are extremely small pieces or damaged then they may to have bubbles, it is harder to see with raw moldavite than it is with polished moldavite, but the bubbles can be any size or shape, a common misconception is that round means fake, this isnt true, they can be round, its just not as common as oval or oblong ones are, this is because of the way they cooled, also the size of the bubble, just like humans have freckles, most aren't perfectly round, but that doesn't mean that someone with a round one is lying about it. They can form in any shape and size, in extreme cases they can form tunnels and holes in the piece where one end of the bubble has been exposed, see the image below to see 2 pieces that have the bubbles forming a tube or tunnel inside the moldavite. 

Here you can see 2 pieces the one on the top left, this one has a chamber inside that got other material stuck inside it and so makes that chamber extremely obvious to see, the one on the bottom has a visible pit in the left side that leads into a tunnel that leads almost all the way through. its also possible to get moldavite with a hole in the middle, this is where the tunnel forms in the middle of a piece and doesn't go the long way, instead forms a hole (as seen in image below). 

Photo of genuine moldavite by Soap & Stone

Photo by Crystal Ki - Genuine Moldavite

Price, this is the next point that is a good indicator, is it too cheap? if moldavite is selling for an average of £20 per g and you find someone selling it for £5 per g, you have to ask why are they selling it this cheap, ask them for more photos, ask for things like a photo of the moldavite with something written next to it, this helps to show that it is actually something they have there, as sometimes these cheaper pieces are real but you will never get the item you buy, its just a stock photo that's being used to scam people. Regardless of the reason behind it, if the moldavite is too cheap it likely isn't real, of course there may be a chance you have found somewhere which is selling wholesale or selling in large quantity or very low quality and so the price may be okay, but like everything in life if it seems too good to be true it may be. 

locality

The next way to spot a fake is if the seller is stupid enough to say its not from the right place, it only comes from Czech Republic so if the seller says its from anywhere else then its fake, do not trust places that say its from the USA, Argentina, Mexico, Australia etc If they say its from Germany or Austria then this is possible due to the impact site and the proximity to Czech Republic however this is less likely than if it is from Czech Republic, so still use caution.

size

Now this one goes along nicely with Price, simply put, if the piece of moldavite is abnormally large van it's most likely to be fake. Never found or just over 100g, and is only a few been found over that size. If you find one in a local shop or online that is over 100g, it is almost Definitely going to be fake. This is because they just don't exist And when I do exist, they are almost always in  museum or major collectors private collection. This, combined with the price should give a clear indication to whether or not pieces are real. If they have 100g peace up for under 100 pounds, for example, that would be 100% fake. The other thing is if it is abnormally large for the weight you can see information by doing a quick Google search on how big the largest ever piece was. And if the piece you're seeing seems to be much bigger than the weight, it should be, then it may well be fake as the plastic doesn't tend to weigh less.

Thanks

A huge thanks to the following people:

HoneyBeri Crafts (Erika)  who very kindly provided us with photos of fake moldavite that they have brought through the years to help educate people on the differences of real vs fake. 

​Crystal Ki - Genuine Moldavite who provided us several photos of moldavite from different localities as well as giving input on some of the things she would say to watch out for when buying from unknown sellers. 

The several people who have sent us photos that we can use to show fake moldavite, this includes both named and un named people depending on their wishes, we will also update this post with any new photos we get sent over the next few days too. 

Examples

Below are some examples of moldavite from several people.

Photo of fake moldavite provided to us by HoneyBeri Crafts (Erika) showing the surface texture of a piece of fake moldavite, notice the glassy look to this piece, it should not look like this.

This stunning piece is one of our own ( Soap & Stone) and shows a very large Velky chlum moldavite specemine.

This photo was sent to us by a person who wishes to remain anonymous showing a piece they purchased online that turned out to be fake, the colour of the piece is good however the texture is too waxy for real moldavite

Photo by Crystal Ki - Genuine Moldavite

Photo by Crystal Ki - Genuine Moldavite this one shows huge air bubbles that have formed within the piece, a really stunning item

Photo of fake moldavite provided to us by HoneyBeri Crafts (Erika) showing fake moldavite purchased online from ebay and ali express

Photo of fake moldavite provided to us by HoneyBeri Crafts (Erika) showing the "melted gummy bear" style of fake moldavite, the classic wet shiny look that these have is classic of a fake piece.

Photo by Crystal Ki - Genuine Moldavite This piece is a really stunning item.

Photo by Crystal Ki - Genuine Moldavite showing a large round but very textured moldavite specemine.

Photo by ourselves (Soap & Stone) Vrabce moldavite, showing air bubbles and the different colours due to varying levels of thickness throughout the item

This photo was provided by Rylan Pym Iverson who purchased a fake piece to show the difference between real and fake pieces.

photo given to us by TomCat Crystals to help us show another fake crystal.

photo given to us by TomCat Crystals to help us show another fake crystal. Notice the classic gummy bear look of the pieces, the wet shine and not as much texture as there should be

Photo provided by Jeffrey Blythe of a piece of fake moldavite sold to them. this piece shows the light behind the item to show the internal structure

Photo provided by Jeffrey Blythe of a piece of fake moldavite sold to them.

This photo is provided by Heidi Fuentes who purchased a 'moldavite' necklace online from a seller on etsy, costing just under $100 (around £80) the item is unfortunately fake, this shows that even expensive price doesn't mean its going to be real unfortunately.