Amber< Copal < & now Rosin

Oct 17, 2017
4
11
Hilton Head, SC
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Good evening Ladies and gentlemen,

I am going to try and do my introduction and plea for help in one post. I am a diver in South Carolina averaging 60-100 dives a year I do black water diving for fossils and the megalodon teeth I also do a lot of Spearfishing. I have however come across something so odd and rare it has taken me a month just to get a decisive answer of what the heck it is.
After Hurricane Irma blew through I was walking the beach covered in huge sea shells and found a 125 Quart Yeti Cooler and a 135 pound chunk of Rosin. The Yeti was exciting enough until I found the heavy mass that looked like a fossilized sea turtle. I dragged the mass home cleaned it up and was left with something I thought was Amber. I pain an "expert" in Savannah $100 who told me it was Copal. Not millions of dollars but still $10K+ I still needed scientific proof though so I mailed a small piece of it to Poland where it was tested and they told me it was just Rosin and didn't even bother to bill me for the information.
Now I am left with a 32" long 24" wide and 10" thick piece of Rosin in my dining room and i'm wondering if I should just toss the thing.

It has obviously spent a good amount of time in the ocean. The Runa shipwreck off of Wilmington is not far from me and the Savannah harbor was a huge exporter of the stuff a century ago. So it could be form either. So please tell me do I have something or did I waste $50 building a crate to cary it in plus the $100 to the "expert" in Savannah.

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Upvote 9
I think it's cool as hell and what a great example of when the longleaf pine ruled the South.
 

gotta be worth something to someone
 

looks like ambergris to me. if it is, check the laws about it. It varies a lot. many places its illegal to sell.
 

Find a local "sculptor" turn it into art, sell it split the cash.

It would make an Awesome sea turtle sculpture.

Cool find.
 

looks like ambergris to me. if it is, check the laws about it. It varies a lot. many places its illegal to sell.
He would be able to smell it, if that were true.
 

He would be able to smell it, if that were true.

Hmmm, thats true. He didnt mention any odor. If it is copal, it looks like it sells online for $10 - $15 per pound. So 135 pound of copal could be broken up and sold for at least $1350. Thats a treasure in my book!
 

As a rockhound, it doesn't matter to me what the heck it is! It's BA that's for sure, somebody will buy it for carving material then sell it as amber, happens all the time.
 

Thanks for all the feedback it's been an ordeal to just establish its Rosin. I sent a piece of it to the International Amber Association in Poland, they are considered the experts in all things resin. Thats where I finally got the rosin answer. It has a pine smell and passes all the Copal tests except for bing sticky at room temperature, and being too clear. If it were Copal it would have bugs, dirt, leaves, etc inside of it. I'm wondering if it could be from a ship wreck like the Runa. Check out the photos from a divers video... I don't think it would polish up too well for long it seems to slowly gain a blue tarnish anywhere it breaks.
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We used to catch pieces of it from time to time on the shrimp boat. This was working between charleston and bulls bay. We used it for fire starter(fat lighter on Steroids).
 

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