The commercial value of amber is related to its scarcity, age, inclusions of extinct species, and durability. Unfortunately, some dealers are more preoccupied with high economic returns, rather than whether or not their resin is fossil or recent. Many internet sites now exist for amber, from commerical to educational , but only a few include information on copal.
Confusion is inevitable.
In response to the listserv discussion and numerous email questions, this addition to the World of Amber will provide some information and references from some amber experts regarding the definition of resins and in particular, copal, an immature and controversial resin. Sierra Leone and Congo copal are both from a leguminous tree, Copaifera guibourthiana . Manila copal, produced by trees in the genus Agathis , is found in Indonesia and the Philippines. Grimaldi described the process to change freshly hardened resin into fossil resin as a continuum, with no specific age or consistent length of time in which this occurs. He believed claims of 2 million year old copal in Africa and South America to be suspect.