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**Large Brazilian Dyed Agate Slab — Hot Pink & Purple Banding, Fluoresces Bright Orange Under 365nm UV!**
**$15 each — listing is for ONE slab**
This is the big version of the agate slice everybody knows — a full-size slab of genuine Brazilian agate, averaging about 6 inches across and weighing around 8 ounces, with the banding, bullseyes, and sparkly quartz crystal centers these slabs are famous for. The color is cranked all the way up: hot pink and magenta-purple, dyed (said right up front) and polished to a shine, translucent enough that the bands glow when light passes through. And under a 365 nm UV light it does something most people never expect from an agate slab — it fluoresces a bright, fiery orange, with every band lighting up differently. Daylight display piece by day, UV showpiece by night.
**What it is:** Agate is banded chalcedony — microcrystalline quartz, Mohs about 6.5–7 — and Brazil, especially the state of Rio Grande do Sul, is the agate capital of the world. Enormous agate nodules are dug from ancient volcanic basalt there, sawn into slabs, and polished. The patterns are painted by nature one microscopic layer at a time: silica-rich water laid down band after band inside a hollow in the rock, and when the center was left open it finished with coarse clear quartz crystals — the sparkly hearts you see in these. The pink/purple color is a dye enhancement, which makes these slabs SUPER reactive under UV: hit one with 365nm longwave and it fluoresces bright orange to red-orange, the bands glowing at different strengths so the whole pattern lights up in relief, as the photos show.
**A little history:** Agate has been cut and traded for thousands of years — it takes its name from the Achates River in Sicily, where the Greek philosopher Theophrastus described it around the 3rd–4th century BC. Brazil's deposits were found in the 1820s–1830s, just as Europe's own supplies were running low, and Brazilian agate quite literally saved the famous German cutting town of Idar-Oberstein, whose lapidaries became masters of dyeing it — a craft they've practiced for well over a century. It's fitting: natural Brazilian agate runs grey and muted, so dyers learned that its bands soak up color unevenly, which is exactly why dyed slabs show such dramatic contrast. Big polished slabs like these end up as display pieces, suncatchers, coasters, and craft stock — and at a quarter inch thick with light coming through them, few stones put on a better show per dollar.
**Please note:** This is a natural agate slab that has been dyed — it is NOT a Yooperlite. Yooperlites are fluorescent sodalite in syenite from Lake Superior that glows orange under UV because of the mineral itself; these slabs glow orange because of the dye. Completely different stone, completely different origin — just an honest, bright UV reaction of its own.
**Details:**
• Genuine banded agate slab from Brazil, dyed hot pink/purple (fully disclosed)
• Average size about 6" x 6" x 1/4" thick — every slab's outline and pattern are one of a kind
• Average weight about 8 ounces each
• Polished faces with quartz crystal centers; translucent — backlight it and the banding lights up
• Fluoresces bright orange to red-orange under 365 nm longwave UV (see photos)
• You'll receive ONE slab from this batch; banding, eyes, and crystal centers vary — no two alike
• Not food-safe — display and craft use
**Care:** Agate is hard and durable, but a 1/4" slab can chip or crack if dropped on a hard floor, so handle it like the polished stone it is. Because the color is a dye: dust with a soft cloth or rinse briefly in plain water and pat dry — don't soak it, don't use chemical or ultrasonic cleaners, and keep it out of weeks of strong direct sun to keep the colors vivid.
