More Amber questions

Hello everybody,

I recently bought a very cheap amber pendant - 40mmx60mm 18mm thick
in open silver bezel for US$25 at a fair. It said on the back “made
in nepal”. The amber yellow honey color, very transparent, with
transparent disks formations inside. Looked like a good deal. Well,
I decided to polish it. I have polished many pieces of amber before,
and they always produce a strong pine smell. This one didn’t. It had
a rather unpleasant smell with a hint of bitter almond.

The question is : could it be real amber? Are there other non-pine
trees in the world making amber-like substance?

Thanks in advance to those who answer!

cheers,
Ruslana

[Edited: Hanuman] Check out:
Amber - Frozen Moments in Time
by: Garry Platt

I grew up on an almond ranch in California (yes! a nut farm!) and as
a child I loved wandering through the orchard collecting globs of
hardening resin from the tree trunks. They looked like jewels to me
and I’d save these sticky little lumps in cigar boxes and stick then
onto crowns I’d make from aluminum foil (if only I’d predicted the
“tiara” craze!) Back then the equipment used to harvest the nuts,
and cultivation in general, could cause small “wounds” in the bark,
and from these resin (the trees’ sap) would ooze. The outer surface
dries and hardens but the inside is still highly gooey and seemingly
insoluble, as my mother would yell at me when doing my laundry or
trying to comb my hair. The “amber” from almond trees smells
faintly of bitter almond, and I suspect the amber you bought was
from an ancient ancestor of contemporary almond trees. Jan
jansmallstudio@aol.com