Why do collectors dislike copal?

I keep getting asked about the copal I sell and it has prompted me to write a short review. Yes, I know I am a a seller but I started (and still am) a collector. The simple fact is YES copal is younger than amber,by how much is still debatable. Ialso sell Mammoth 'fossils' but no one writes to complain about them only being only50 000 years old....... You will find many articles on the internet trying to debunk copal.Just about everything written in the articles is correctbut youwill seeI am not selling this as amber. The concerns about trying to fool the buyer can be ignored as there is no deceit on my part.The pricesARE only a fraction of what a similar piece of amber would be worth and I am sure you appreciate that. As for the age of the copal,the tests that they talk about are only acurate up to 50000 years so no piece can be dated beyond this. I take my cue from the Natural History Museum in London who accept the copal is Quartenary in age so upto about 1.8 million years. The Baltic amber has been more thoroughly studied and gives dates of around 32-50 million years by testing the deposits. If you apply this to the copal with similarly huge deposits it is naive of any institution or collector/sellerto say it isALL just a few thousand years old. Some could well be but the resin must have been deposited over many 100s of thousand years or as the Museum suggests 2 million years. There is no way of knowing exactly how old the copal is (the same with amber) as the individual pieces can not be dated. I always state that the piece is upto 2 million years

---

Orignal From: Why do collectors dislike copal?