I went to this year's Tucson Gem Show with a few things on my list, and one was the word "yellow". Specifically, I was looking for "the yellow" from Pantone's 2012 list: Solar Power.
I was standing at one of my regular bead vendors when I saw it across the corridor. I made a bee line and grabbed a hank and said "is this amber"? "Copal Amber" was the answer. What I knew was that it was gorgeous! Exactly what I wanted!
Back home I figured I better figure out what Copal Amber was. I knew one thing ... if it was real amber, I wouldn't have spent as little as I did. I also knew it was light and lovely -- but it was clearly natural -- not some sort of man made fake amber. (Not to mention that the seller was VERY reputable.)
So ... according to academicemporia.edu:, (and everything else I read):
Amber:
On the other hand,
Copal Amber:
Copal Amber is not the fossilized, hardened resin that is known as amber, but rather an immature recent resin. Confusion is inevitable. "The oldest known substitute for amber is copal, a resin which is very similar in appearance" , but Copal is not many millions but many thousands of years old.
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