In addition to spherical shapes, green-stone beads can be seen to be barrels, ovals, tabular, and other shapes--as well as made from other greenish minerals.

Among the distinctive shapes are these beads that were cut to resemble certain animals--either real animals from local life, or fantasy animals from folklore. Here, we see what appear to be grubs (the lower left), several elephants, and a fantasy beast, perhaps (second row, number five).

Many collectors have been attracted to the elephant-shaped beads, typical of Pyu production. Many of these are green-stone beads, but others are different varieties of quartz too. Note that the head of the elephant is seldom given much detail, and can even be just a flat side of the bead. In some cases, the eyes have been suggested with simple notches. Over-all, the elephants are stylized and suggested, rather than closely defined.

Glass Imitating Green-Stone - We are going to consider glass separately, but let's make a small exception here. As I poured over this group of several thousand beads, I began to notice that some of the "green-stone" beads were actually glass. However, they were sometimes so similar it was difficult to tell for sure--and god knows I didn't have much time to sort or consider. Here's a shot (from my group) showing stone on the left, and glass on the right.

Most of these beads are glass. An interesting thing is that there are quite a few prismatic beads that look like they imitate tourmaline and/or emerald crystals (though the real versions of these beads were not found here). Perhaps the real crystal beads had already been removed.... Just a few years ago, my friend Jim Lankton went to Thailand, and found similar glass beads that intrigued him.