Thanks for your reply. I have been pursuing the fake-turquoise question for about a year now—and I believe I reached critical mass at Tucson this year. I am now preparing a short article for the newsletter of The Bead Museum, where I will divulge my findings.

I can only say that I am grateful I was able to see real Tibetan artifacts twenty to thirty years ago, to have a fairly firm view of their ornamentation. (Books help too, of course.) New fake Tibetan amber has been circulating for over fifteen years now. I haven't been as diligent in acquiring specimens, as I might—partly because I refuse to buy anything from the dealer who sells the most, and sells to many other sellers. (You know who I mean.) But I have witnessed it happening, and I have the beads I have. And I have some very nice authentic Tibetan amber beads too. The contrast is the sublime to the ridiculous.

Here's a question for you. A friend of mine went to Tibet recently. She claims that everywhere she went, she saw no real coral beads—but only "glass imitations." I responded that they must have been new dyed coral, and not glass—and I can't think of much in the way of glass imitations (apart from the pseudo-sherpa beads from India) that would be there in big quantities. So I think my friend has mistaken dyed coral for glass (especially since she "didn't see any dyed coral"). Do you know of scads of new glass beads imitating coral, in Tibet, now?

Jamey