Steve wrote:
"No Body" wrote in message
...

How on eareth do you tell the difference between real beach glass and
glass that someone polished in a rock tumbler???


Sorry to answer a question with a question, but Why would it matter? It
isn't like beach glass is some long sought after limited commodity. It
isn't particularly rare or collectible in itself to have some forgery value,
so why does it matter? whichever means gives the end result is what I would
think would be important, and how it is used even more so.

to answer your question, carbon dating could give you a precise age of the
material, but don't know that it is quite worth it.



Would carbon dating work?. I think that applies to living organisms that
have carbon in them at some level during life and it decreases due to
radioactive decay once dead so the age can be determined. I didn't think
glass normally contained any carbon containing chemicals.