Agate Stone; Features and 1 Fun Historical Fact

November 4, 2021

Agate; The Total Original

To ponder upon agate is to ponder upon the infinite. Well, maybe not, but it’s close, and at least it’s a good way to “kick-start” this article. I’ve always been amazed at the extraordinary variety of this gemstone. Just when you thought you’ve seen it all, you’ll come on one that gives you that surprise and once more you realize how vast is agate…

Pronounced AG-it, this hardy gemstone has been cut and polished for centuries. From Roman times and centuries before, people have made good use of it. Some of the reasons are its abundance, its toughness, its workability and, last but not least, it’s beauty.

It makes great arrow and spearheads as well as beads, marbles, goblets and bowls. It was the stone of choice for engraved signet rings and carved stamps for the sealing of documents because hot wax doesn’t like to stick to polished agate.

From Roman times and centuries before, people have cut and polished agate.

Around our area, here at Cold Lake (Canada), it is mostly found as small waxy-looking yellow translucent nodules, and people often think they’ve found Amber. However, Amber is very light (so light it floats in salt water) and feels like plastic when you pick it up. The largest piece of agate I have seen locally is about half the size of my fist and was found in the area around Pierceland, Saskatchewan. I keep it just as it is to preserve its uniqueness. It is probably half its original size since it has a small cavity on the side where it hadn’t finished filling in, and there are the characteristic ring patterns surrounding the hole indicating it’s only half there.

Two thousand years ago, or thereabouts, the Romans set up huge sandstone wheels in a mill-type arrangement on a stream at a place in Germany where fine agate was plentiful. Around this agate cutting industry, the little towns if Idar and Oberstien grew until, today the major industry of the area is the procuring and cutting of every type of gemstone in existence. Though some, with a small view of it, consider it a minor gemstone, agate has had a major impact on the economy of many areas of the world. At the present, it is experiencing a faster escalation of value than diamonds. Custom jewelers in high traffic areas are designing around it and setting it in 18Kt gold with diamonds and many other exotic gems. The reason seems to be that, more than ever before, people are recognizing it as a unique gem.

Two thousand years ago, the Romans set up huge sandstone wheels in a mill-type arrangement on a stream at a place in Germany where fine agate was plentiful.

Color is a broad topic in agate and of course, can be a very exciting one. Since agate is a material that owes its color to traces if different minerals becoming incorporated in the microscopic silica which is the building block of the agate, there is a possibility is could appear in any color. Silica also is, by the way, the building block for the modern computer.

I have seen agate as yellow as a canary with a few black markings to really set it off. I have some agate from Globe, Arizona (which was all worked out in the early ’50’s), as blue as turquoise. In the Mojave Desert there is a purplish tinged blue agate which they call appropriately, Mojave Blue, whose rate of appreciation has been far more rapid than that of diamonds. There is a rare sapphire blue agate from Africa and blue agate from Mexico. Of these, the Mexican is apparently less vibrant in color.

The agate belongs to the branch of the Quartz family called Chalcedony. It is pronounced cal-SE-dony. There are a number of similar members such as Flint, Chert, Jasper, Sard, Sardonyx, Bloodstone, Carnelian, Onyx, Chrysoprase & Jaspilite. The division between many of these is a little smudged as they begin to overlap so we’ll go on to deal with color in agate.