Experience, patience and luck all play their part in a good amber find, but your chances are best on the west coast of Jutland when the wind has been from the west or south-west for a couple of days and has died down, leaving the sea calm. Most amber drifts ashore with seaweed and sea-growing plants and can be found at low tide. 

Amber may be the world's oldest precious stone. We know that our Scandinavian ancestors valued amber from the earliest period of the stone-age and exchanged it for goods from Italy and Greece. Amber was popular with the Romans and was used not just in jewellery but also for cups and other utensils. The Romans also knew that burning amber produces an aromatic smell, and that amber can be used as incense.

Amber was rare and owning amber was proof of wealth. It was used in jewellery and to produce various utensils. The most fantastic amber-work is to be found in St. Petersburg's Amber Room. The Prussian King Friedrich I was so fascinated by amber that he ordered that his study in Berlin should be fitted out in amber.

It took Europe's most skilled craftsmen 8 years to form and arrange almost 100,000 amber pieces in huge mosaic panels. However, the Russian Tsar was so taken with the unusual work that he succeeded in getting the panels presented as a gift. They were initially installed in the Winter Palace and subsequently moved to another of the Tsar's palaces in St. Petersburg. In 1944, the Amber Room was removed by the Nazis and has since disappeared never to be recovered.

If you are fortunate enough to find some amber it is actually easy to distinguish from stone. Amber is light and weighs only a third of what a stone of equivalent size weighs. Amber has a hollow ring; if you hit it carefully against your teeth it sounds hollow. Stone always feels colder than amber and amber is soft. You can scratch amber with a stone and create small splinters - you cannot do this to a stone. You can also burn amber and if you do, it gives off a red sooty flame. Amber is actually called “burning stone” in Swedish and German. Amber also becomes electric if you rub it, and the word “electric” actually comes from the Greek word for amber: electron! 

Unique Jewellery

Amber is found on the coasts of countries bordering the Baltic. For centuries amber has been used to manufacture jewellery and ornaments. Amber is still used in this way today, and many artists are still fascinated by its warm colour. Danish artisans also use gold, silver and gemstones to create captivating and unique jewellery inspired by the elemental nature of Northern Jutland.