Amber and Its Imitation in Tengchong Market, Yunnan Province

Tengchong market of Yunnan Province is a key distributing centre where burmite products including raw materials and finished products, are traded and sold to the other markets in china. In recent years, more and more various treated burmite products, imitations and new varieties have appeared in the Tengchong market. For a regulated amber market, this article gave a summary of identification among treatment products, imitations, new varieties of burmite and natural amber, by using gem microscope, ultraviolet fluorescence lamp, infrared spectroscopy. The phenomenon of uneven surface and local fluorescence abnormality can be seen under natural light and ultraviolet light in the filled, compressed and reconstituted amber. The plastic, "second-generation amber" and copal resin showed abnormal flow patterns under gem microscope, and presented special fluorescence under ultraviolet light and abnormal infrared spectral characteristics. The characteristics of abnormal structure, fluorescence and infrared spectrum peaks of "Xuecha amber" in the new mining area and variety that is similar to the root amber from Burma have not been uniformly determined in the industry, which need to be further studied.