I Thought It Was A Plain Clear Mib...

[jstone]

I have a pretty ordinary looking clear yellowish marble. Clear as in you can see through it. When I was showing my kids what my collection looked like under a black light - it made us gasp! I had it with the group that I didn't think would do anything special, but when the black light hit it we noticed a super bright orange patch/haze throughout the marble. It jumped out because the orange is soooooo bright. I'll try to photograph it tomorrow - but I was wondering if anyone could tell me anything about the makeup of the marble? I thought vaseline glass (which would be a good description of the color of the marble if we named them like crayon colors) glowed sort of a bright greenish/yellowish under black light? What is it that glows orange? Thanks for any help - I'm learning so much from these forums but there is so much info. it's hard to process it all in the short time I've been learning. I can't recall if I've seen anything about this issue.

Thanks!

Jessica

[MARBLEMISER]

Jessica,

It sounds like you have a mib made using uraninium.

It will glow under a black light.

The term I have heard used to describe

this type of mib.

Is glow bug>

And yes vaseline glass is very common in

these type mibs.

It does not however make them worth more that many other mibs.

They were made prior to 1949. At least that's my

understanding.

Since the chemical was a health hazard.

Just what I know ( or think I know )

about this type of mib.

hope this helps?

marblemiser

[richsantaclaus]

Thanks marblemiser - your post was very educational for me!

[Steph]

There's another element ... begins with M ... which can cause an orange glow.

Magnesium? Manganese?

Ebay says Manganese. lol. I wouldn't usually take ebay for an authority but this guide which came up has some great pix so it must be right! (lol)

Anyway, the pix are cool:

http://reviews.ebay.com/FLUORESCENT-Glowing-MANGANESE-Glass-similar-to-Vaseline_W0QQugidZ10000000000103952

[jstone]

Thanks so much for the info! I found a very informative site about vaseline glass: http://www.vaselineglass.org/ (I think Steph posted it on a different topic/thread)

I had a nifty little phrase at the end of the page, "If it doesn't glow green, it's not vaseline". I suspected it wasn't uranium/vaseline because of the orange color and MANGANESE it is!!!! Yippeee! I know what it is! The others I do have that are vaseline or custard are more of a green, yellow, or even dull white - the bright, bright orange just didn't fit in. The e-bay link with the manganese glass pics. was a great starting point - I also looked up info about manganese and manganese glass from other sources and I'm pretty confident that's what I've got.

As for the value of my mibs, I'm under the assumption mine aren't very valuable - simply because they've been played with and all the REALLY old ones wouldn't be in mint condition. It doesn't matter to me though, they were my grandpa's and I've got fond memories of him getting on the floor to play when I was little. Plus, I love having such "ordinary" objects that are so beautiful...it's like having 450 mini pieces of art in a jar. I'm having fun just trying to i.d. them.

Thanks everyone for your help. I'm so appreciative of how helpful people are whenever I post a question or need help w/ i.d.'s. This group is fantastic!