Agatized Fossil Coral (rare green color)

Item Description

There are a few organic materials that have been used as gems for centuries, including Amber, Shells and Coral. Not only is Coral an organic material, it's actually an animal, and fossilized material has been used in jewelry for a long time. In recent years, Indonesia has produced some of the finest, and most well-preserved Coral fossil stones you'll find. I've been told that the coral reefs along these highly volcanic islands were preserved when they were covered by volcanic sediments from eruptions long ago. The island of Sumatra has incredible deposits of rare and ornate suite of fossils from approximately 20 million years ago during the Miocene Age. These processes amazingly captured the full pattern and character of the original coral life forms have been preserved in great detail. Here we have a good sized "Pear Cabochon" cut stone of this material, but what really makes it special is that 1/2 of the stone shows a rare GREEN hue (possibly from copper content inclusions?). Most of the stones from this area are softer cream or silvery colors, so GREEN is a big deal. A superb gem showing the beautiful patterns of the Coral (I'm told it's actually Sponge Coral) now preserved in Agate.