No pranks or tricks for April Fools, but I rather make a large list of gems or minerals that are constantly misclassified as other minerals or fakes created by the lapidary market (especially from China) to trick people into buying them. I’ll keep adding to this list when I find new ones.
Dalmatian Jasper - Correctly called Dalmatian Stone, it’s not a jasper, but rather an igneous stone. It’s a mixture of several minerals, including feldspar and tiny grains of quartz. This page goes into detail about the composition and difference between it and actual jaspers.
Dragon Vein Agate - Is also called Dragon Skin Agate, it’s a dyed stone. What stone is it dyed from is unknown as there are multiple sources saying different things. Some have come to the conclusion it’s a type of dyed chalcedony, either being agate or spiderweb carnelian
Transparent/Translucent and brightly colored Obsidian - Obsidian are usually black,
mahogany, bluish black, and sometimes colorless. There are other known iridescent variations like rainbow, fire, and sheen obsidian. However, brightly colored “obsidian” are not obsidian at all. Most colored obsidian you look up have a watery-clear texture are not natural. They are either man-made glass or slag glass. It is possible for natural obsidian can be green, blue, yellow, and red but those varieties are very rare.
Bumblebee Jasper - It’s not a jasper, but rather a type of rock. It’s a mixture of several different minerals and can only be found in the Java province of Indonesia. You can read more information here.
Crab Fire Agate - This is a weird one because the difference between a crab fire agates and actual fire agates are extremely apparent (laughably so). Once again, it’s unknown what crab fire agate actually is (if it is a stone at all). Some people say it’s actually treated or dyed spiderweb carnelian, but it could also be synthetic glass. Someone did a very detailed examination on the material here.
Candy Jade - Dyed white stone (not jade), synthetic glass, or made with stone powder.
Aqua Terra Jasper - The term “Aqua Terra” seems to be a loose terms used for multiple stones in the lapidary community. However, for this particular stone, it’s misclassified. It’s actually a hydrated aluminium phosphate mineral called variscite.
Dragon Breath Opal - May also be referred to as Dragon’s Breath Glass or simply Dragon’s Breath, is not an opal or even a real mineral. It’s a synthetic glass material with a bi-colored effect caused by mixing metals together. It was used to simulate fire/jelly opals.
Impression Jasper - Not to be confused with Imperial Jasper. Like Aqua Terra, impression jasper is actually low grade variscite that’s dyed to change or enhance its color.
Lemuerian Seed Crystal - Sold as a different and “sacred” mineral of a legendary civilization similar to Atlantis and claiming to originate from Brazil. These are actually regular quartz crystals.
Blue Moonstone: This name can be giving to high quality moonstone with a bluish tinge, but most blue “moonstones” being sold are dyed chalcedony.
Rainforest Jasper - A rhyolite. Correctly called rainforest rhyolite, it’s an igneous rock that contains quartz and feldspar nodules.
Utah Turquoise - Misnomer of variscite.
Kambaba Jasper/Nebula Stone - This one is just embarrassing. It’s so wide spread thanks to crystal healing sites that it continuously misspells “Kabamba”. It should not be confused with Kabamby Jasper (which is actually a rhyolite). There was a lot of controversy surrounding the stone: not just being called a jasper, but also labeled as a stromatolite. Neither of these are true. The stone is actually called Kabamba stone or Eldarite, an igneous stone. I’ve gone into detail about this stone in this post, but someone else did a break down on the chemical composition of the stone’s colored variant Nebula Stone, which can be found here.
Blue Opal - While there is a blue opal variety of Australian Opal from Queensland (and perhaps also applied to black, boulder, and crystal opals), it’s sometimes a misnormer for lazulite.
Sea Sediment Jasper - Not to be confused with Sea Jasper (as it’s another name for Ocean Jasper, which is a real mineral), it’s also sometimes called Emperor Jasper. It’s a mixed bag, but the majority of sea sediment “jaspers” are man made dyed resin/polymer creations. However, some sellers dye other minerals and sell them off as sea sediment jasper. Some number of dyed stones include low grade variscite, agates, and (in one case) white brecciated jasper.
Blue Onyx - Are either blue agates or chalcedony dyed blue.
Picasso Jasper - Correctly called Picasso Stone or Picasso Marble, it’s a metamorphic limestone.
Yellow Turquoise - Yellow jasper or serpentine being sold as a turquoise. Turquoises cannot be yellow in color.
Orbicular Jasper and all of it’s varieties, including Ocean Jasper and Poppy Jasper - While it’s debated, orbicular jasper (and its varieties) are actually silicified rhyolites or tuffs that contains crystallized quartz and feldspar needle-like crystals forming circular structures. On the other hand, a modern term for jasper no longer applies to just quartz gems, but rather spotted rhyolites too. This makes classifying very confusing.
African Turquoise - A misnormer. The stone is not turquoise, but a variety of jasper that resembles turquoise.
Mariam Jasper, Elephant Skin Jasper, Cobra Jasper, Coquina Jasper, and many more names - The stone of many names for a wavy yellow and brown rock. It’s actually limestone with fossils embedded into it. More suitable names for it are Script Stone or Arabic Script Stone.
Black Turquoise - It’s actually black onyx with banding similar to a turquoise (not to be confused with spiderweb turquoise).
Amazon Jade - A misnormer used to describe green amazonite.
Purple Turquoise - A misnormer for Sugilite.
Bohemian Topaz - A misnormer for Citrine.
White Turquoise - Also called “white buffalo turquoise”, is a misnormer for Howlite
Jasper Jade - Green jasper or serpentine disguised as jade.
Black Amber - A misnormer for Jet.
Oregon Jade - Either dark green chalcedony or Jasper sold as a jade.
Mojave Turquoise - Sometimes spelled “Mohave Turquoise”, is not a natural growing turquoise, but can be made with real turquoise. They take low grade turquoise nuggets (usually kingman turquoise) and bound them with bronze metal or resin. The blocks are dyed to achieve other colors like green and purple. They came from the Kingman mine in Arizona and may be the only sellers to use real turquoise for Mojave Turquoise. Other stores dye other minerals like howlite (or magnesite) and sell it as this stone.
Purple Jade - Sometimes sold as Sugilite. However, it should be noted that purple or lavender jade is a real variety of jadeite.
Herkimer Diamond - Hardly a diamond at all. It’s a double-terminated quartz with crystal clear clarity, located in Herkimer County, New York.
Rainbow Moonstone - It’s a trade name given to transparent or white labradorite.
Balas Ruby - Trade name for a rose-red variety of spinel.
Block Turquoise - Contains no real turquoise at all. It’s also referred to as synthetic turquoise. it’s created using inert ingredients, dye, and resin to form blocks that can be cut and shaped.
Cherry/Blueberry Quartz - Artificially made glass. (Note: some Strawberry Quartzes being sold may also be made of glass, but it is a naturally existing stone).
Bone Turquoise - Fossil bone or ivory colored naturally or artificially to resemble a turquoise.
Synthetic Alexandrite - While true synthetic alexandrites are made, ones that are sold are usually synthetic color change corundums as they’re easier to make.
Cubic Zirconia - A synthesized, colorless form of zirconia. They’re often sold in place of diamonds. Despite having zirconium dioxide in their chemical composition, they have no relation to zircons.
Mexican Onyx, Limestone Onyx, onyx-marble - All misnormers for a banded variety of calcite.
Aura Quartz - These are metal-coated crystals. What happens is you take a regular quartz crystal and bond it with a metal or two to give it its metallic sheen. Some varieties, like Aqua Aura Quartz, are made in a vacuum where the quartz is heated and gold vapor is applied (in a process called vapor deposition). Some other metal coatings include copper, platinum, indium, titanium, silver, and niobium.
Rhinestone - An imitation diamond stone made of crystal glass or polymers. Originally, rock crystal was used to make rhinestones until the 19th century. Today they’re used as costume jewelry and decorative clothing, but they’re sometimes sold under the disguise of other stones.
Gaia Stone - May also be called Mt. St. Helens Stone and unofficially Helenite. Sellers and crystal healers claim that this is natural green obsidian. This is incorrect. This is an artificial glass made from the ashes of the 1980 volcanic eruption at Mt St Helens in Washington State, USA.
Opalite - Despite its name, Opalite is a man made glass. It’s sometimes called Sea Opal Glass and Opalized Glass. It’s often confused for Moonstone.
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