Ambers are fossil tree resin with a yellow-orange color and a golden tint. Ambers are the world’s oldest gemstones, and they are associated with many myths. The Greeks called them Electrons (meaning created by the sun), and German tribes used them in religious rites during the Middle Ages.
The world’s largest amber mine is located in Russia’s Baltic region. Ambers can be found in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, and along the shore of the Baltic Sea. Other sources of amber are Burma (Myanmar), Lebanon, Sicily, Mexico, Rumania, Germany and Canada.
The two largest sources of amber are the Baltic countries and the Dominican Republic. The market has shown a preference for the older and more traditional gemstones which are mined in the Baltic countries.
But gemstones from the Dominican Republic offer a different kind of attraction. In recent years, ambers have come into the limelight due to exposure from an unexpected source: Thanks to the movie “Jurassic Park” (in which a blood sample of a dinosaur is drawn from an insect entrapped in an amber stone), ambers have become increasingly popular due to their beauty as well as the chance that they might contain DNA traces of extinct animals. Ambers from the Dominican Republic are considered to have the greatest chance of containing insects, which contributes to their popularity among both gemstone and adventure lovers.
