Rock, Crystal & Mineral Identifier App
Names rocks, minerals, crystals and fossils, with properties, hardness and rarity in plain language.
Lovenhall Stone IdentifierName what came out of the ground.
Photograph a stone and the instrument names what it appears to be — rock, mineral, crystal or fossil — with its properties, how common it is, and a rough idea of what a find like it is worth. For anyone who picks things up and wonders.
Rocks, minerals & crystals
Three moves, and you have a figure
You photograph it. The instrument reads it. You know where you stand.
You photograph it
One photograph. Nothing to fill in, nothing to send away.
It reads what it sees
The reading happens there and then, on the phone.
You have a figure to work from
A range, in seconds — enough to know where you stand.
What a photograph can and cannot settle
Photograph something you picked up and the Stone Identifier names what it appears to be — rock, mineral, crystal or fossil — with its properties, how common it is, and a rough idea of what a find like it is worth. It is for the pocketful of things that come back from a beach or a riverbed and sit on a windowsill unnamed for years.
It is also the instrument in this case with the most honest warning attached, because mineral identification is the one discipline here where the camera is working with the least useful evidence.
| Diagnostic property | Visible in a photo? | How it is actually tested |
|---|---|---|
| Colour | Yes — and it is the least reliable property there is. | Ignored by geologists for exactly that reason. |
| Lustre and habit | Yes. Genuinely useful, and what the instrument leans on. | The eye, in good light. |
| Hardness | No. | A scratch test against known points on the Mohs scale. |
| Streak | No. | Dragging it across unglazed porcelain. |
| Specific gravity | No. | Weighing it, in air and in water. |
| Cleavage and fracture | Only on a freshly broken face. | Breaking it, and looking at how it broke. |
Quartz alone occurs colourless, purple, pink, yellow, brown, grey and black. This is why a photograph gives a candidate rather than an answer.
Colour is the trap
Almost every beginner identifies by colour, and almost every mistake starts there. A trace of iron turns quartz purple and calls it amethyst; the same mineral shows up in six other colours with six other names. Meanwhile two completely unrelated minerals sitting in the same gravel can look identical in a photograph.
The instrument works from lustre, habit, crystal form and context as well as colour, which is why it does better than a plain image search. It still cannot do the three things that would settle the matter, so it gives you a name to test rather than a name to trust.
Three field tests that beat any app
All three are cheap, take a minute, and between them eliminate most of the wrong answers an image can produce. Do them on a piece you are willing to mark.
- Scratch: try it against a copper coin (Mohs 3.5), a steel knife (5.5) and glass (5.5). Whether it scratches them, or they scratch it, brackets the hardness immediately.
- Streak: drag it across the unglazed back of a bathroom tile. Powder colour is far more constant than surface colour — haematite streaks red-brown whatever it looks like.
- Heft: pick it up and compare it to a rock of the same size. Anything that feels startlingly heavy is worth a second look, because density is diagnostic and rarely faked by nature.
The gold question, since everyone asks it
Most suspected gold is pyrite or weathered mica. The separation is easy in the field: pyrite is brittle and will crumble or powder under a knife point where gold is soft and will dent and smear; pyrite forms sharp cubic crystals where placer gold is rounded and irregular; and gold is roughly four times heavier for its size than pyrite. Pyrite also streaks greenish-black, gold streaks gold.
A photograph cannot do any of that. It can tell you which of the two is more likely from crystal form, which is a genuinely useful head start and not a conclusion.
How to photograph a stone, and what a find is worth
Shoot it dry and then wet — wetting a rock does what a polish would, and often reveals banding and colour that dry dust hides. Put something in the frame for scale, break off nothing you care about, and photograph a fresh face if you have one, because weathered surfaces lie.
On value, the honest expectation is low. The overwhelming majority of interesting rocks are worth very little in money and a great deal in interest; the instrument gives a rough idea precisely so you can stop wondering whether you are sitting on something. Where it does flag something unusual, a local geological society or a university department will look at a specimen for nothing, and they are the right next step. The house examines nothing and appraises nothing, and every figure it gives is indicative.
- Natural light, out of direct sun. No flash — it flattens lustre, which is a real clue.
- A coin or a ruler in frame for scale.
- One dry shot, one wet, and one of any freshly broken surface.
- Include the crystal shape if there is one, and the matrix it sits in.
Frequently asked
Is there an app that can identify rocks?
Yes — the Lovenhall Stone Identifier names rocks, minerals, crystals and fossils from a photograph, with properties, hardness and rarity in plain language and a rough idea of what a find is worth.
How accurate are rock identifier apps?
Better than an image search and weaker than a geologist, because the properties that actually identify a mineral — hardness, streak, specific gravity and cleavage — are not visible in a photograph. Treat the name as a candidate and confirm it with a scratch test, a streak test and by heft.
Can an app identify a crystal?
It can suggest one from crystal form, lustre and habit, which is far more informative than colour alone. Colour is the least reliable property in mineralogy — quartz occurs in at least seven colours under seven different names.
How can I tell if I have found gold or pyrite?
Pyrite is brittle and powders under a knife point; gold is soft and dents and smears. Pyrite grows sharp cubic crystals, placer gold is rounded. Gold is about four times denser, and it streaks gold where pyrite streaks greenish-black.
Is the Stone Identifier free?
It is free to try on iPhone and iPad. Every reading and figure is indicative, and the house examines and appraises nothing.
The free tools and notes that go with it
A Lovenhall instrument reads a photograph and returns an estimate. Nobody at the Registry examines the piece, and no professional opinion is given. It is not a certificate of authenticity, an appraisal, a gemmological report, or a guarantee of value; any figure is indicative only, and independent verification is always advised before a purchase or sale.
№ VI · StoneRead the piece itself
A page takes you as far as words can. Photograph the piece with the instrument and start from a figure — an estimate, which is where you begin and never where you finish.