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What is Red Mexican Amber?

Updated: 5 days ago


Today, we are going to do a deep dive on red Mexican amber, one of the richest amber colors that exists in the world.


Right here we have a piece of raw Red Mexican Amber.


Authentic Red Mexican amber fluorescence—rare raw piece under flashlight.
Authentic Red Mexican amber, backlit with a flashlight.

Here we have a triple AAA polished piece of Red Mexican amber.


Polished Red Mexican amber glowing bright red under a flashlight, showing natural fluorescence and oxidation.
Polished Red Mexican Amber, backlit with a flashlight.

We have here a really really dark big piece of Mexican Red Amber with a very special glow-in-the-dark ability which is a special ability of Mexican amber.


Raw Red Mexican amber glowing bright red under flashlight
Raw Red Mexican Amber

If the room was darker that glow would last a lot longer. Only amber can do this. And red Mexican amber is the best of all of these of these glow-in-the-dark types.


What is Red Amber?


Well, to know what red amber is, first we start off with yellow raw Mexican amber, which is 99% of the amber that's mined out of the earth comes out yellow. The the very small 1% comes out red like this. And this is literally the cream of the crop.


So, let me explain how red amber is formed and then I'll show you all these different things about it. So, imagine you have a layer of earth here and the amber deposit is down here in all these little stones, right? And a human is going to walk here and if they dig with their shovel right here, eventually they'll find some amber pieces.


Raw red amber specimen with natural crust and polished dark surface
Raw Red Amber Specimen

What happens is all of these ambers down here are yellow. Like this piece of amber, that's 99% of the deposit is yellow amber, which is its original starting color. It all starts off yellow, but the pieces of the amber that are right near the surface of the earth up here, these pieces can interact with oxygen in the atmosphere, and that oxygen goes down, and it can only mix with the very top layer of soil. But any amber that's preserved in this very top first layer gets oxidized by the oxygen, and it turns this color. It turns it this really rich red. It's almost like amber's version of rust because it's oxidation, but we love it when it happens with amber.


Raw yellow amber piece illuminated with a UV flashlight
Raw Yellow Amber under flashlight

And so what happens is say your amber miner here, he's looking for a new amber deposit. When he finds a piece of amber, when he finds a new deposit, this whole thing here, the first pieces he finds up here are the AAA red pieces. Those are going to be the best of the best. Like this one for example, which came out of a recent mine discovery in Mexico. Really really rich red big thick piece with this glow-in-the-dark ability which is way more exaggerated in the dark. This piece right here is what you get from the top. And then as you start to mine these pieces down here, those pieces are your yellow amber like this when it's polished. And it can also glow in the dark sometimes, but not as much. Red Mexican amber is by far the most glow-in-the-dark of all of that.


Red Amber vs Yellow Amber


Let's compare two different pieces of amber. A yellow piece of amber and a red piece of amber. This piece of amber was, of course, the raw amber that this came from before it was polished was going to be yellow like this. And then when you polish it, it's like this. And this is a beautiful piece of amber. Nothing wrong with it. That's AAA yellow. But this amber was is yellow, which is the standard color and the standard price, therefore.


Whereas this piece here, this piece here, especially look at it with the flashlight behind it. Look at that red color. This piece right here, this is a piece that was mined right from the top the tip the top of the deposit on the on the Earth's crust. This stuff goes for $10 a gram. So this piece is, I think, 49 g. I think it's $490.


Hand holding two large, natural amber specimens: one dark, polished cherry red amber piece, and one bright, translucent golden-yellow cognac amber specimen.
Red Amber and Yellow Amber held side-by-side

Whereas this piece right here is about $150 because this one is an insect. And you can actually capture insects in red amber. Insects in in red amber is more rare. But here is a piece of this is semi-red, what we call wine color because it can happen that the amber only gets slightly oxidized by the oxygen and not fully. Look, here's a little insect right there. I'm not sure if you can see it.


There's a couple more little guys, but this this is a wine colored piece of amber. And so, because red amber is more valuable, what they like to do is often you they can make um necklaces and beads out of it. So, this for example, this is a group of beads.

Raw red Mexican amber showing red fluorescence under UV light during authenticity testing.
Raw Red Amber under flashlight
Raw, rough Mexican amber specimen being tested with a flashlight, showing a brilliant golden-yellow translucent glow.
Raw Yellow Amber under light

This is a group of bead strands that are from red amber. And these are more expensive than these. These are beads from yellow amber. So you can clearly see the color difference right here. And these ones may glow in the dark better if you wear them with your jewelry.


So that's basically a deep dive on red Mexican amber.


Thank you for joining this quick deep dive into Red Mexican amber. I hope you enjoyed learning about what makes this rare gemstone so special and truly one-of-a-kind.


Here is a video showing the process:


See more rare amber specimens on www.amberbugs.com




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