What stone are these made of, and how do I clean them?

Post date: 2018-02-18 14:54:41

I bought a chess set cheap on eBay. It was advertised as agate and jade, and mouldy. It's certainly mouldy, but I'm pretty certain it's not agate and probably not jade. Can anyone take an informed guess at what type of stone these are made of, and how to clean mould off them?

The white pieces have a warm quality to the colour rather than a cold one, if that makes any sense. The greenish ones are translucent with dark flecks in them. They were in what I think is the original box, which was not great quality, so I doubt they're anything expensive,. A hot needle doesn't mark them, so they're almost certainly not resin. No idea of country of manufacture.

I know nothing about identifying stone apart from the results of a few web searches.

According to the seller the set had been stored in damp conditions, and there is a residue of light-coloured mould in the fine details and grooves of most of the pieces. Soap, water and a soft scrubbing brush hasn't been able to get rid of it. I don't want to risk anything more caustic without being sure it's not going to damage the pieces.

Any advice would be very gratefully received.

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