(Internal #K-2553) You are bidding on this natural, one piece of RARE Kauri Gum - young amber called copal from the North Island of New Zealand, specimen is 

Medium, 85 grams (2.99 oz), 3-3/8” long x 2-1/4” wide x 1-1/2” tall.  

We have hand picked these specimens for their extraordinary variation of colors that make Kauri gum so special.  NOTE:  THERE ARE 160 POUNDS OF SPECIMENS IN OUR COLLECTION TO CHOOSE FROM, THAT WE PURCHASED WHILE WE WERE IN NEW ZEALAND.  This creates 

a huge range of Kauri gum specimens in all sizes & colors, down to chips and even dust which can be burned as incense.  Some have been made into pendants, some are even artifact pendants anciently drilled.

Photography is unretouched.  An awesome one-of-a-kind collector item.

RARE NEW ZEALAND 

KAURI GUM (Resin, copal = young amber)

Kauri tree is rare and native to the North Island in New Zealand. 

Resin is the sticky substance that oozes from the tree when it is in distress (stored within the tree to heal any damaged parts)

Kauri gum was dug by Gum Diggers over 100 years ago, and shipped to England for use as a varnish.  Today collectors purchase Kauri gum as specimens, to make into jewelry, or, because it is flammable, purchased as a superb form of incense and metaphysical/therapeutic uses.

Many forests of Kauri trees were felled by two different tsunamis into valleys 10,000 to 50,000 years ago which were then covered by swamplands or sediment.

Lack of air totally preserved the trees.  Due to shifting ocean shorelines, some of the Kauri trees are found in the ocean which have been carbon-dated up to 200,000 years old.  The largest Kauri tree in New Zealand named Tane Mahuta is 2000 years old, located in the Waipoua Kauri Forest north of Dargoville, and is considered sacred. 

These few remaining living trees are now protected, though carvers can use the deadfall or dig stumps and gum from the ground or from the swamps.