Chinese Turquoise

During the 1970’s when turquoise popularity spiked in the United States, Chinese turquoise importation rapidly increased due to the increasing price and decreasing supply of American turquoise. Chinese turquoise was significantly cheaper due to reduced labor costs, reduced environmental regulations, and an abundant supply. Over time, the Chinese turquoise was recognized as being of low quality because the vast majority requires chemical stabilization and also because of its thick, jagged matrix and its uniquely dull appearance due to magnesite mineral content. As a result, Chinese turquoise gained a reputation as a cheap, unattractive altemative to the higher quality but higher priced American turquoise. Virtually all of the least expensive southwest silver jewelry contains Chinese turquoise while all of the higher quality Indian jewelry uses
American turquoise due to its superior appearance.

 

Almost all of the Chinese turquoise sold over the years has been green to greenish blue with a distinctive if less than attractive black matrix. Over time, new deposits of Chinese turquoise were discovered which mimicked the appearance of the turquoise from many American mines. Unscrupulous sellers counterfeited expensive American turquoise by claiming this inexpensive new Chinese material was Number 8, Lander Blue, or even Bisbee turquoise. As more and more Chinese deposits were discovered and as stabilization methods improved, virtually every American mine was subject to counterfeiting by a cheap Chinese counterpart.

 

In recent years, a couple of new turquoise deposits have been discovered in China which produce high quality natural turquoise which can be sold as Chinese without apology. Some of this material is bright blue with fine black spiderwebbing and commands prices equal to those from some of the better American turquoise mines.