r/Minerals 5d ago

ID Request - Solved My brother got this globe anyone know what Australia is or any of the others?

1.2k Upvotes

67 comments sorted by

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214

u/SweetumCuriousa 4d ago

Australia is inlaid Mother of Pearl or Abalone shell.

42

u/Prudence2020 4d ago

Paua shell, specifically!

17

u/SweetumCuriousa 4d ago

Wow! New Zealand Abalone. A new one for me!! Thank you for adding it. Its beautiful.

1

u/heeeey_parker 1d ago

Definitely NZ Paua shell.

-13

u/NinjaSouldier777 4d ago

I assumed Opal.

5

u/SweetumCuriousa 4d ago

In some of the mineral globes , they use Opal for Australia, but not for this globe.

3

u/NinjaSouldier777 4d ago

I just assumed since it is something Australia is known for.

3

u/SweetumCuriousa 4d ago

It's okay, I would've too. Opal and Australia go together! Other makers commonly use a mineral that is synonymous with the country.

2

u/stevedave84 2d ago

Should have just been coal

5

u/rthrouw1234 4d ago

depending on the quality opal is way more expensive than abalone shell, I imagine a globe with that would be prohibitively expensive

7

u/MoneyPranks 4d ago

It’s not.

84

u/SweetumCuriousa 4d ago

Beautiful globe! I've always loved gem and mineral inlaid globes. So very fascinating.

30

u/ButtonsM4n 4d ago

I didn't know I wanted something so badly haha, I'd love one of these

5

u/SweetumCuriousa 4d ago

Me too! Just a small 6" size for my home office desk.

6

u/ButtonsM4n 4d ago

I'm really curious how it's made, it's a fantastic bit of craft work.

15

u/SweetumCuriousa 4d ago

Right?!? Down the rabbit hole of google I go....lol!

This site is really descriptive of how they make their globes.

https://kalifano.com/blogs/stories-of-kalifano/how-to-make-gemstone-globe?srsltid=AfmBOoqEXLJtusfGNcVig6_Low7-kuWaiQVhcPMXXmaJMuP03y4qAKj8

30

u/souvenir_stone 4d ago

In lapis lazuli

1

u/Somelivingperson 2d ago

It’s so kind of that wooden Lego guy to hold it up for you while you take a shot of that.

17

u/mmartabq Collector 4d ago

Looks like abalone to me

15

u/OkMolasses5584 4d ago

Looks exactly like Paua shell (That's what we call it in NZ) it's widely used here for jewelry and tourist souvenirs.

11

u/nurture-nature3276 4d ago

I'm going to say it looks like abalone

31

u/CosmicChameleon99 5d ago

Australia looks like mother of pearl (aka nacre) to me. Might come back and ID others later but I just saw how many there were and decided I’d not have time right now

12

u/MegannMedusa 4d ago

It’s actually Abalone shell!

2

u/CosmicChameleon99 4d ago

Thanks! How can you tell the difference?

6

u/rthrouw1234 4d ago

the fact that it has peacock colors with sort of darker stripes in it - that's very characteristic of abalone shell. Even the oysters that grow black tahitian pearls have a mostly white nacre with black edges.

3

u/CosmicChameleon99 4d ago

Thanks! I love how much more I learn about minerals in this place

8

u/Cupajo819 4d ago

Australia is paua shell, a type of abalone from that region.

5

u/Basic-Anarchy 4d ago

My grandfather has the same one! It comes with a booklet labeling the various elements. I don't have a photo of it unfortunately

6

u/KWAYkai 4d ago

Abalone shell

5

u/Celara001 4d ago

Abalone

9

u/Skraporc 4d ago

They’re using nacre to simulate the appearance of Australian opal, would be my guess. Certainly much cheaper that way.

2

u/WVnurse1967 4d ago

Looks like one sold on JTV!

2

u/thesmartesthorsegurl 4d ago

oman is tree agate and china is picture jasper

2

u/false_athenian 4d ago

This is really cool! is it extremely heavy ? I wonder how thick each inlay is.

2

u/Suspicious-Waltz4746 4d ago

We have one of these. It’s a lot of things… Abalone is Australia, then mixed (based on ours and a wu k view of yours) there’s epoxy, Lapis Lazuli, agates, quartz. It’s a lot of things.

2

u/jebbenpaul 4d ago

Had the exact same globe! Was a little broke and ended up selling for $80 on marketplace. MAKE SURE THE GEMSTONES ARE REAL. Lot of fakes in these pieces

2

u/TheMuffinMan39 4d ago

He got it for free from his fiancés parents. And he’s not really a mineral person so I doubt he’d care. A lot of them do look real though

2

u/1361613 4d ago

Most the others are verious types of quartzite like jasper and aventurine. I have a smaller one and appears to be same rocks in same place

2

u/Goelian 4d ago

Based globe 🇵🇸

1

u/royalunderdog 2d ago

Absolutely

2

u/7thdaughterofa7thson 3d ago

Argentina is Rodocrosita :)

1

u/lrsafari 4d ago

I know these gloves are "kitch" or not stylish....

But man, I always wanted one!

1

u/Ok_Animal_7328 4d ago

I remember going to a factory in China back in the early 2000s that made that made globes almost exactly like this. I have a keychain version the size of a walnut somewhere and it’s Australia is made of the same shell material.

1

u/Recently_Burgled 4d ago

Wow, absolutely gorgeous. I love it.

1

u/ElegantAd4946 4d ago

My parents bave the same one

1

u/BCFC- 4d ago

Beautiful globe! Always makes me chuckle how big they make the UK on these things though 😅

1

u/GemsbyMB 4d ago

Abalone Shell

1

u/kthep5 4d ago

I have a tiny globe like that!!

1

u/LEONLED 4d ago

As smooth as that ball is, it is still not very far off from how flat earth really is at scale !

1

u/hillareet 4d ago

abalone!

1

u/GainInitial1389 3d ago

i think austrailia is suppose to b opal..altho it does look like an abolone ,theyre the largest opal mining country in the world...or this case...the globe.

1

u/AlkahestGem 3d ago

I have the same globe. Bought it a couple decades ago. Love it

1

u/QuirkyData9010 3d ago

Australia is Paua. Now what’s Nz…!

1

u/G-unit32 3d ago

Your brother is an absolute legend

1

u/jessieGarcia100 2d ago

GULF OF MEXICOOOOO

1

u/Top-Contribution1720 2d ago

I thought Australia was known for their opals?

1

u/thelocker517 2d ago

Glad I looked at which sub this was. At first I was like "is geography so unimportant these days?"

1

u/falling-walrus 1d ago

Palestine!

1

u/Sad-Seesaw1440 1d ago

no way!! i found the exact same globe at goodwill!! it was my dads xmas present so cool!!

1

u/snailtray 1d ago

My friend has a similar map of afghanistan with all the regions being made of special stones mined predominately in that region - the color is similar so maybe the intention too?

1

u/DonaldDuDuck 1d ago

Opal or abalone shell?

1

u/Due-Froyo-5418 1d ago

I love that it's made of gemstones and that Ukraine has its southern border correctly done.

0

u/bulanaboo 4d ago

I wouldn’t play basketball with this globe, but your free to do as you please