FREE: Turquoise Nuggets (1)

Nice listing, which mine did these come from? Watching, a Fan as always! Btw, when there's a black backing applied as in your just closed auction, it's called a DOUBLET. They do it a lot with Opals, but have started doing it for Turquoise as well since availability of good Turquoise nuggets has become rare, a double allows one to use a very thin slice of Turquoise and still retain a certain strength. It's a strategy used to stretch available resources, just as you frequently find reconstituted 'nuggets' today, rather than the solid nuggets that were once the norm.

Yes, Sir, that's one of several commonly used backings. The way I look at it, is that since its use allows us to make use of Turquoise that is too thin or fragile to use as they are, but is otherwise beautiful and desirable for jewelry, the practice of bonding the Turquoise to a backing should be an acceptable practice.