The agates of Casas Grandes and Parcelas tend to be
very similar in cut/polish appearance that they sometimes can be confused
for each other. I wasn't even sure which is Casas Grandes or Parcelas until
I finally got a pail of true Casas Grandes Agates (but Grade B through..:(
). It is common to find Casas Grandes colored white to gray with "snow"
dots in them, and there had been a number of agates coming with the color
of pink, blue, lavender, yellow, orange and purple. What distinguishes
the Casas Grandes Agates from Parcelas Agates is that Casas Grandes Agates
tend to look bit more rusty (yellowish) while Parcelas Agates coming with
more reddish skins. Those agates are one of few oldest agates mined in
Northern Mexico (1955), but ever since, there had been some sparse mining
of those agates due to the fact that they have to work on the hard andesite
bedrock to get at the agates as well as the fact that about 75% of the
nodules contain nothing but siberite (brown "calcite").
I do not know if I will ever be able
to get any more Casas Grandas Agates in the future.
