Email Me .
Dwarves' Earth Treasures Museum:
Paint Agates
from Cumberland Plateau along Alabama / Tennessee border
 .
    I'm quite pleased to have finally obtained some good examples of Alabama/Tennesse Paint Agates from an old collection.
    The yellow agates with red freckles and ribbons look like they have been painted by dancing and crazy painters, hence, the name "Paint Agates" for them. They share the same limestone beds throught the western Cumberland Plateau along Alabama/ Tennessee border. Only a small percentage of the Paint Agates will have banded agates and rarer to find the banded agates dead-centered in the nodules. It's common to see banded agates only along the edges of the nodules. The agates are typically yellow and red, sometimes with black to clear agates and the red color are usually not confined to the bands due to the porosity of the agates.
    Alabama Paint Agates which may actaully came from Greasy Cove, Tennessee which is just few hundred feet from Alabama border, and they seem to have been extracted from the soft limestone beds while Tennesse Paint Agates had already been weathered out of their already-gone limestone hosts and found in the soils along the rivers just like Kentucky Agates. Additonal info can be found in this Tennessee Paint Agates at this website.
    It seems quite difficult to obtain any quality banded agates from those areas due to the fact that too much of the land are privately owned, but there had been some collecting expeditions to the rivers and lumbered areas . I would encourage the land owners to open up those lands and they can make some extra from any collecting fees.

YOU CAN CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO SEE LARGER PICTURES

From Greasy Cove along AL/TN border From Greenhaw, Tennesse
Rough Appearances:
The agates along Alabama/Tennessee border look like they have been extracted directly from limestone host itself and the nodules have reddish tint.
Most will show yellow dotted/ribboned with red color without any agate bandings.

Tennesse Paint Agates are similar, but has rougher & more weathered exteriors.
Coming from close locations along the border, they can be confused with each other if not labelled properly.

Perfectly centered! (chipping already fixed)
Greasy Cove along Alabama/Tennesse border
(old label said Alabama)		 Highly detailed!
Greasy Cove along Alabama/Tennesse border
(old label said Alabama)

Tennesse Paint Agate from Greenhaw in Franklin County, Tennessee

Additonal info about Tennessee Paint Agates at this website: