Ivory is jewelry made up of teeth of animals like elephant, mammoth, hippopotamus etc.  It is generally used in art or manufacturing. Ivory is a vintage jewelry used as an art and it is considered to be heavy and dense. A single tusk of 10 feet long can cost around $250,000.The use and trade of ivory has impacted the overall population of elephant and always been a controversial topic globally. Mammoth who have been extinct for 10,000 years, their tusk have been well preserved and provides high quality, carvable ivory. It is used to make various decorative items, piano keys, furniture inlays, flatware handles and billiards balls because of its white color. Asian and African are top most traders deals in ivory in the world. China is the foremost country, which trades ivory and often uses it for traditional medicines and ornaments.

Checking the angles of Schreger lines is the only method to distinguish between Mammoth ivory and Elephant Ivory. However, it is very difficult to distinguish between the two. The method to differentiate between the two is to determine by the angles where the cross grain lines intersect each other. Angles more than 120% reflects the elephant ivory and angles less than 90% reflects the Mammoth ivory. The quality of Mammoth Ivory (fossil) is as good as the Elephant ivory of modern times. 

However, the demand of mammoth’s Ivory is high in China because it can be used in medicines and various powders. According to studies, more than ten million carcasses of Mammoth are buried under the Tundra and same can be collected just from China.

Another feature to differentiate mammoth’s ivory from elephant  ivory is that mammoth  ivory will display the brownish color because of the iron phosphate called viviante.On the other hand, elephant ivory will not have the character of viviante. Since, the trade of elephant ivory is banned; Alaska and Siberia are the only place left to excavate the mammoth tusk of ivory. Because of the geographical nature of these places, the fossils (tusk) have been well preserved and choose to be the best ivory art throughout time. Mammoth ivory is legal to sell, buy and trade across with a permit because of its fossil ivory nature.

 Mammoth ivory is way more expensive than the elephant ivory because it has an antique nature and it has also an advantage of being legal, unlike elephant ivory, which is banned internationally. As of June 1989, imports and exports of elephant ivory are banned through United States of America, as it is on the endangered species list. Business of ivory is booming in some countries that sell expensive statues and jewellery. Some people don’t realize that an elephant has to die in order to get ivory for their luxury. Musicians (Guitarist) like Vince Gill, uses ivory pegs and bridges faces problem taking his instruments oversea because of its illegal trade nature. Many Federal rules have been implemented, aiming to block the sale of ivory to protect endangered elephants. However, Mammoth ivory is the only legal ivory that you can trade safely.

Mammoth ivory is used to make knives, jewellery and may more. It is very costly because mammoth have been extinct for 10,000 years. Some people enjoy keeping as an antique or jewelry and some people collect ivory as a status symbol. Mammoth ivory is of high quality, which came from woolly Mammoth makes it legal worldwide.

This post was  written by Selena Cobrin:
 Selena Cobrin is a content writer , She is Mostly like to write about new thing her experience. You can add her on Google+