Gemstones are the rarest of stones and only a few rocks in the world contain them. They come from igneous, metamorphic, or sedimentary rock formations which have been moved by tectonic activity over thousands to millions of years. The actual location where you find your gemstone is called a “source” as it’s very difficult for these minerals to be found anywhere else on Earth.
Gemstones are a type of mineral that can be found in your backyard. If you are looking for gemstones, the best way to do so is by finding creeks or streams in your area and doing some digging.
You may believe that gemstones can only be unearthed in far-flung locations or created in jewelry labs. Some common gemstones may be hiding in plain sight in your garden, even if you can’t see them on the surface. And we’ll go through how to discover gemstones in your own backyard in this post.
Contents
Gems That Can Be Found in Yards are a Common occurrence.
Though you’re unlikely to discover a diamond in your lawn’s muck, there are a few jewels you may be able to uncover right at home.
Listed below are a few options:
- Quartz. This is the kind of gemstone you’ll most likely come across regardless of where you reside in the United States. It’s quite widespread and may be found in jewelry as well as home décor items like sculptures and worktops. Pure quartz is colorless, and imperfections in the stone generate color variance. Agate, Amethyst, and Citrine are examples of quartz, with Amethyst being the most precious.
- Turquoise. Turquoise has been utilized in pottery, clothes, and jewelry for hundreds of years and is remains popular today, thanks to the Native Americans. This treasure is more likely to be found in the southern United States.
- Jade. Jade has a dull green tint in its natural condition and is mostly found in metamorphic rocks. This gemstone is most likely to be found in your yard if you reside in California, Wyoming, or Washington. It will, however, take some polishing to get the gleaming brilliance seen in jewelry shops.
- Garnet. Garnet was a popular gemstone in ancient civilizations, and it’s one you won’t want to overlook. It’s still extensively used in jewelry today and may be extremely precious. Garnet is normally a deep red color, although depending on the mineral type, it may also be orangey-red. If you reside in the Carolinas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah, Montana, or Idaho, you’ll have the highest chance of discovering Garnet in your backyard.
- Opal. Opal has become a popular gemstone in jewelry due to its iridescence and beauty. The most sought-after opals are black, fire, and white opals, which may be very precious, with rare opals costing more than diamonds. Opals are rather simple to discover in nature, since they are still iridescent and gleam in the sunshine. Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, and California residents will have the most success discovering this stunning stone.
- Tourmaline. Tourmaline is a gemstone that is often found in Maine and California, however it is readily mistaken with more precious stones. It comes in a range of hues and isn’t the most precious stone, but it may still be used in jewelry as an inexpensive substitute for other jewels. The color of Tourmaline seems to shift somewhat depending on the angle from which it is seen. In its native condition, Tourmaline is opaque and lustrous, with black Tourmaline being especially striking.
- Agate. The reddish or brown coloration of this gemstone, as well as the marbled texture of its surface, make it stand out. This is the most prevalent color in your backyard (but it may also be found in other colors like as green). Agate is most likely to be found in your backyard if you reside in the Western United States. If you reside near ancient lava beds, there’s a good possibility you’ll come upon some Agate.
Let’s talk about how to discover gemstones in your garden and the equipment you’ll need now that we’ve discussed the gemstones you’re likely to come across.
Methods and Tools
While you could strike it rich and discover a gemstone on the ground, some may need a bit more work to extract. Here are some fundamental tools that you may require:
- To chip away at rock or compress soil, use a pickaxe.
- To dig further into the earth, use a trowel or a shovel (on standby).
- Small diamonds are removed using a classifier (commonly used in finding gold). You could unearth a bunch of different-sized jewels when digging in your garden, much like this woman. You’ll probably need a classifier to separate the smaller gemstone bits from the bigger stones and undesired detritus. Just make sure you sift over a big box or pail to avoid losing any possibly valuable little fragments.
- Tweezers. These may be used to find stones that are difficult to locate with your fingertips.
What to Look For
After you’ve gathered your gear, it’s time to go gem hunting in your own garden. If you have some nearby, limestone deposits are a fantastic place to start since many different kinds of gemstones tend to interact in these locations. Alternatively, you might begin excavating in a rocky part of your yard.
If your property is near water, such as a stream, river, or the ocean, these are also good places to look for gemstones. When it comes to finding diamonds in your backyard, luck — and the location in which you reside — play a big role. You can be out of luck if the geography is incorrect. As a result, always look in the aforementioned regions where stones are most likely to be found.
When You’ve Discovered Your Gemstone
We’ll go through how to identify and prepare your gemstone in the next sections.
Cleaning
If you’re lucky enough to come upon a gemstone or two, start by cleaning it using a gem cloth. To form a square, fold the gem fabric in half and then in half again. Turn one corner around and tuck your stone inside. To remove any fingerprints, grime, lint, dust, or oil from your hands, rub the stone firmly between your fingers.
Some stones may have a dull outer coating that requires a jeweler’s expert sanding.
Identification
Though there are an infinite number of gemstones that you may discover in your yard, we’ll focus on how to recognize the most common backyard gemstones in this part.
Quartz
Despite the fact that quartz occurs in a wide range of hues and forms, there are a few methods to recognize it.
- Quartz is usually always clear or hazy white in appearance (like in the photo above).
- It has a glassy surface and is tough enough to scratch both glass and steel.
- Sandstone or light-colored rocks are common places to find it.
- Quartz crystals have a hexagonal form when seen in nature.
Pink and green quartz are two more hues you could come across, but they’re more uncommon. Check out this helpful article on recognizing quartz for additional details.
Turquoise
Isn’t it simple to recognize turquoise? In a nutshell, yes and no.
A reasonably common stone called Howlite may be mistaken for turquoise. It’s probable that you’ll come across dyed Howlite if you reside in a neighborhood or an area that’s been occupied for a long time. This coloured mineral makes over 90% of all “turquoise” on the market today. Howlite is a very absorbent white mineral that isn’t real turquoise, yet it closely resembles it.
Rub a little edge of the alleged turquoise stone with acetone — yup, nail paint remover — to check that it is natural turquoise. If you use a cotton ball or a q-tip to clean colored howlite, the blue color will leak into the cotton ball or q-tip, revealing the white stone underneath. You have a natural turquoise stone if no color is removed.
The color and texture of turquoise may also be used to identify it. Natural turquoise is almost never a single color. Take a look at the image on the right. In a webbed look, browns, blacks, and other rock hues are blended in with the blue. Some turquoise stones seem to be greenish-brown or blueish-green in color. When you run your fingers over the webbed portions and your skin catches, you know you’re dealing with a natural stone.
This is due to mineral deposits in the stone that the turquoise developed in creating the webbing. The “parent stone” wears away over time, leaving a rough texture along the discolored lines.
Jade
There are a few techniques to verify the authenticity of your purported Jade gemstone. The first step is to search for faults. While it may seem paradoxical, defects in the color or texture, particularly vein-like impurities when examined under a microscope, may suggest a natural stone. If you look at your Jade under a microscope and observe any bubbles, it’s probably not genuine.
The scratch test is the next method of determining genuineness. Steel is incapable of scratching genuine jade. Make an effort to scrape the gem with a needle. The Jade is fake if there is a noticeable scratch on it.
Check see this post for further information on how to verify a Jade stone.
Garnet
Garnet is a fairly simple gemstone to recognize, and it may be done just by looking at it. Hold the garnet near enough to your eye that you can feel it brushing across your lashes. Point the stone toward a six-foot-distance light source, such as a window or a bright bulb. The garnet should have rainbows in it.
Concentrate on one rainbow and make sure that each hue is there. Blue, green, yellow, orange, and red bands should be observed. You don’t have a garnet if you don’t notice the green and yellow bands, but you could have a Ruby.
You may also use the scratch/hardness test. Try scratching a piece of steel with the Garnet if you have one laying around. The steel will be noticeably scratched if you have an original garnet. Garnet should be resistant to steel scratching.
Opal
The luminous features of opal help to identify it. When exposed to light, synthetic opals often fail to glow. Fake opal is likewise porous and has a more consistent hue throughout than real opal (whereas natural opal will have different colors displayed throughout its body).
Check visit this article for further information on how to spot phony opals.
Tourmaline
There are a few properties of tourmaline that might help you recognize it. Let’s have a look at some of them:
- Tourmaline is often found in crystals and has a frosty, crystal-like look.
- Six-sided crystals with rounded edges are common.
- Because black is the most frequent hue of tourmaline, finding a black ostensibly tourmaline stone in your yard may indicate its authenticity. (Though tourmaline is available in almost every hue of the rainbow.)
Check out this informative article about tourmaline for additional information.
Agate
Agate that hasn’t been cracked apart will seem twisted, with distorted coloration and stripes, like in the image above. These diamonds are more likely to be found in a rock-rich environment. Holding a reddish, striped stone up to the sun, or another powerful light source, is the easiest method to recognize it as Agate. You’ve got an Agate gem on your hands if the stone is semi-translucent and you can see prominent reddish striping or “marbling”!
The more pronounced the striped pattern, the more valuable your Agate is.
Selling and Appraising Your Gemstones
If you’ve discovered a high-quality gemstone in your garden, you may be thinking of selling it for a profit. If you’re not sure how much to ask for your gemstone or where to sell it, you’ll need to get it appraised before you can put a price on it.
Obtaining an Appraisal for Your Gem
If you want to know how much your diamond is worth, you should take it to a reputable appraiser. We recommend looking over this list of Appraisal Associations in your area. When you take your diamond to be assessed, the appraiser will examine the quality of the stone first. If the quality isn’t up to par, it might be completely useless or worth very little.
The rarity of the stone, its current market availability, prevailing trend at the moment, and demand for the stone for jewelry manufacture or other applications will all factor into the final price of your gemstone. You may now try to sell your diamond once it has been properly assessed and you know how much it is worth.
Buying and Selling Gemstones
An auction house is the best venue to sell a gemstone that hasn’t been polished, carved, or set into a piece of jewelry. You may try selling your jewel through a local auction house or an internet auction house, which will provide you access to a larger range of purchasers.
Of course, you don’t want to sell your gemstone at just any auction house; you’ll want to go for one that specializes in fine jewelry and gemstones. Of discover a gem auction house near you, check our handy reference to auction houses that specialize in gemstones.
You may also check whether local jewelry stores, jewelry manufacturers, or specialized shops would be interested in acquiring your gem if there isn’t an auction house near you or if you’d prefer find an alternate means of selling your stone. We suggest that you attempt to sell your gem at a gem-focused online or in-person action house unless you know someone who can offer you an extremely fantastic bargain.
Conclusion
When it comes to how to find gemstones in your backyard, the task can seem like an impossible one. But with the right knowledge of What to Look For and how to identify common stones properly, you may just hit gold!
We hope you found our information useful in your search for valuable stones! Good luck with your search!
The “finding crystals under trees” is a guide that will help you to find gemstones in your backyard. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find gemstones in my yard?
A: Gemstones are generally small rocks with a variety of colors and often shiny appearance. They may also be metallic in appearance or have an organic, gem-like quality to them.
Is it possible to find crystals in your backyard?
A: Im sorry. I dont understand the question. Please rephrase it and try again.
How do you find natural gemstones?
A: There are a few different options for finding natural gemstones. Once you have an idea of what kind of stone you want, it is recommended that you find someone local who specializes in these stones or look online to find some reputable sources selling the stones at good prices and quality.
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