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Plastic replicas of amber are great in jewelry - they're pretty and they keep the weight down a bit compared to glass or stone. But the phrase "cherry amber" is a pet peeve of mine. "Cherry Amber" is one of the very first "collectible beads' purchases I made in the early 80s at an antique store. It was 99.00 for a strand of graduated faceted oval beads, lovely, I thought. I bought 'em on layaway. A hundred bucks was what I lived on for a week back then. A year or so after, probably at Jamey's amber talk in 1983, I learned they were genuine plastic. I put them away for about 5 years and didn't even look at them. Until I came across a book about vintage plastic in jewelry, with value guide, and found my beads actually were worth what I paid for them. Then, I felt better about owning them, but still encounter antique dealers at many shows and collectives who try to sell the stuff as "cherry amber" and will argue about it. It's been going on for a few generations before the internet existed...
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