White Buffalo Turquoise Buying Guide

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in high-quality Native American Jewelry. Whether it’s a vintage squash blossom necklace or a contemporary artisan bracelet, your jewelry could be increasing in value! This doesn’t mean you run out and pawn your grandma’s ring in hopes of getting rich. The age and condition of the piece, the quality of the stone, as well as the hallmark or makers mark dictate the value and desirability. While this is true with nearly all Native American Jewelry, there is one stone on the market that is becoming ever-more desirable due mostly to its rarity. White Buffalo Turquoise.

White Buffalo Stone, commonly called White Buffalo Turquoise, is from a single mine in Nevada. It's known for its distinct beauty and purity. While similar to turquoise in its structure and formation, its stunning white and black color is due to the lack of heavy metals like copper, iron and zinc, which are responsible for the characteristic blues, greens and yellows found in turquoise. With only a single mine in existence the value continues to increase as the resources are depleted.  Due to its desirability and limited availability, consumers must keep an eye out for misrepresentations.

The most common misrepresentation of White Buffalo Stone is through the mislabeling of less valuable yet similar stones such as Howlite and Magnesite. On the surface, these stones have similar veining patterns; however, their chemical makeup is entirely different to that of White Buffalo Stone and should not be represented as such.

The limited availability of the stone also means that high-quality pieces are hard to come by. A desirable piece of White Buffalo is hard, takes a nice polish and contains a black matrix of chert found in various patterns throughout the piece. Lesser quality stone will contain a higher volume of brown quartz. This is seen as an undesirable characteristic. Unique patterns such as spiderwebbing are a rarity and command a higher value. Quality silversmithing along with a prominent and well-known maker will only increase the value of White Buffalo pieces.

Cisco’s takes pride in sourcing only the finest examples of White Buffalo Turquoise jewelry. Quality pieces are hard to come by and sell fast. If you’re interested in purchasing a piece of White Buffalo jewelry but can’t find what you are looking for, give us a call. We would be happy to find you the perfect piece!

View our complete collection of White Buffalo Turquoise here.