Over the years I have been asked a lot on how to spot a fake piece of Moldavite. I have finally put together a more comprehensive list on how to better understand the difference between real and fake Moldavite

Here are a few tips for spotting a fake piece of Moldavite 🙂

1. Glassy looking. Moldavite is a natural glass so some pieces can have this effect (particularly in photographs), so this isn’t the best way to tell.  However, you will find that with the more obvious fakes they will have a highly polished green bottle look – kind of like wet glass.
2. Shape. Now this one is usually the easier way to tell if a piece of Moldavite is fake or real!  Fake Moldavite is made from a mould and so there is a uniformed pattering to the overall shape.  I have found that they are usually of the same thickness through the whole piece and the edges tend to have a more rounded appearance.
3. Shape again. But this time if someone is selling a parcel or individual stones and they all look the same…… spot the very obvious fake! But don’t roll your eye at me I have seen this a few times of the years.
4. Surface Texture. When you look at a real piece of Moldavite you can see the surface texture is a mixture of unique patterns, yes some might look similar however with the fake ones are made using a mould that usually repeats the same pattern/patterns over and over again.
5. Inclusions. This is a harder one for most people to do as the inclusions can usually only be seen under a microscope at very higher magnification.  Genuine Moldavite will have some formation inclusion.
6. Bubbles. Moldavite is a natural glass and can have bubbles inside the stone and these bubbles can be of any shape or size.  This is not a given in every piece however can occur.  The bubbles will never be on the outside of the pieces as that will be made up of formation markings like heat caters and pits.
7. Certificate. Please please don’t trust the certificates out there.  Anyone can do up a fake certification certificate and I have seen some very fancy looking ones over the years.  ONLY buy from a trusted seller that will give you a 100% money-back guarantee.
8. Size. The largest piece that has ever been recorded as found is a 258-gram one and anything over 50 grams is very rare and expensive, so keep in mind that Moldavite should not be a very large stone.  Nowadays I only see a few come up for sale through the mines and anything over about 20 grams usually ends up in a private collection and is snapped up fast. 

I recently got sent a large piece of Moldavite that a customer asked me to have a look at and see if it was real. Unfortunately, it wasn’t and here are some pointers on the piece so that you can tell when looking at Moldavite in the future.