One of my favourites from the buyer beware box in my teaching kit… 

Trapiche emeralds are special because they consist of a central, hexagonal emerald crystal with 6 arms of a dark-coloured mix of minerals extending out from it and emerald in between each arm. Having said that, they have also formed without the central crystal too… anyway, research and hypothesis into how these complex crystals formed is incredibly in-depth!

A rare and stunning gemstone, trapiche is Spanish for sugar mill and the dark arms in the emerald look like the spokes of the grinding wheels used to process sugarcane in South America where these stones are found.

So, here we have another internet purchase on the left weighing in at 56.30ct, ‘certified’ as natural emerald and costing me £11.69. It is a dyed quartz, with the dark trapiche markings drawn on with pen - I'm not kidding!  The lines don't even go all the way round the "stone"!

The tiny stone on the right is a natural trapiche emerald and is also in the teaching kit - but well protected from this bruiser of an imposter.

I have also seen what looks like fused glass being sold as trapiche emerald... but at over £300 each I won’t be getting one of those for the teaching kit…