Cut in a little village in Southwest Germany.Idar Oberstein agates made for trade to Africa (Mali and West Africa). Mid, or mid to late 1800's

"Idar-Oberstein is a small town situated in the Hunsrück Mountains of the Rhineland-Palatine region in the south west of Germany. Despite its diminutive size, it became one of the leading gem-cutting centers in the world, with a history of mining and lapidary dating back hundreds of years.

Positioned on the banks of the Nahe river, the two neighboring villages of Idar and Oberstein were at the center of a region where agate has been hand mined for thousands of years. As early as the late 1400's, mechanized mining operations to extract agate, jasper and quartz created employment for gem cutters and stone carvers who flocked to the region"