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Jet
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Jet is a hard lignite coal that takes a fine polish. It is not in fact fossilized wood, as is often reported. When something is fossilized there is usually little, if any, organic material left. In its stead is a collection of inorganic material like lime or silica. This process is called mineral replacement and is indicative of a fossil. Jet is formed when wood decays slowly underwater, creating coal, making it one of the four organic gemstones. Its name comes from the French jaiet meaning a "deep black color".
Jet has been used in adornment since the Neolithic period, making it is one of the oldest gemstones known to man. Jet often occurs alongside amber in the Baltics, and the two materials share other characteristics such as hardness, weight, and the tendency to develop a static charge when rubbed with wool. This gave jet the epithet “black amber”, which later gave rise to the name “witches amber”. Jet and amber are used to make a witch’s cord.
Most of the stone’s earlier folklore involved it being burned as an incense. The smoke of which was said to do everything form detect epilepsy and cure madness, to banish evil spirits and phantoms.
Jet has been found in burial sites across the globe, from Neolithic tombs to Native American burial mounds. It was thought to have power in places where the dead walk, and was used in amulets that would ward off evil and cause you to be overlooked by demons and revenants. Wearing the stone would render the evil eye ineffectual, as well as the spirits that cause it.
Jet became the stone of mourning after Queen Victoria began employing the gem in her mourning attire. To this day Whitby jet is considered some of the finest examples of the stone, and jet is still very closely associated with death and morning by the social elite.
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Colors
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Black to dark brown
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Locations
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Baltics, England, and Appalachia
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Compisition
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C, with impurities
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Hardness
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2.5-4
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