Other Swirls

The  category Banded Swirls  and  Coreless Swirls  tends to  be  used interchangeably. These are  swirls  that  have an  outer layer  of bands or strands, but no inner core. If the outer layer appears to be evenly spaced, subsurface, and of a type  usually found as the outer layer  of other types of swirls,  then they  are  usually termed coreless. If the  outer layer  is on  the  surface, irregular in spacing and  band width, and  not  the  type  of outer layer  typically  seen on  a swirl,  then they  are termed banded. They tend to lack the pizazz of other types of swirls  and  are  valued lower. Coreless swirls,  as opposed to banded swirls,  tend to carry  somewhat more value.


Banded and Coreless Swirls are found with colored base glass (usually blue  or  green), about as  often as  they  are  found in clear. There is not much difference in value  between the  different colors.


Joseph’s Coat Swirls (below)  are a specialized variety of banded swirls.  If the bands are  very  thin  and  packed closely together, then it is a Joseph’s Coat swirl. Otherwise, it is a Banded Swirl.

 

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Joseph’s Coat Swirls  are swirls  that  have an outer layer  of glass that is composed of variously colored similar-width complete strands, packed very closely together.


 Better  examples have no clear  spaces in between the strands. Some examples do have clear  spaces, In some cases, these appear to be part of the  design. There are  usually some strands in the  inner  core that  can be  seen through the  spaces. Generally, the  more colors in the  marble, the  more valuable it is.


Joseph’s Coat Swirls have either dark, earthy colors or bright English- style  colors. The base glass of a Joseph’s Coat  can  either be  clear or colored. The outer layer can be Swirl type  (bands and  strands) or End of Day type  (stretched flecks of glass).

 

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There are  several types of swirls  that  are  specialized examples of banded or coreless swirls.


 A Gooseberry Swirl  is a transparent glass swirl  with  equidistantly spaced white  subsurface strands. The base glass is usually honey amber. There are also marbles with base glass that is green, clear or blue. These are  much rarer than  the  amber.


A Caramel Swirl is a marble with a dark transparent brown base glass and  opaque white  bands or swirls  in it. Some examples have mica in them. These are  rarer than  those without mica.


Custard Swirls and  Butterscotch Swirls  have wide  translucent brown/pink strands on the  surface. Custard Swirls  have a semi-opaque creamy yellow  base. Butterscotch Swirls  have a semi-opaque creamy brown-yellow base.


Cornhusk Swirls are  a  light  transparent honey yellow  glass with a single wide  white  band. They are more common than  the miscellaneous swirls  discussed above.

 

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A Peppermint Swirl is another specific type  of banded swirl that  has subsurface bands.


The marble has  two  wide  opaque white  bands, alternating with two thinner translucent blue  bands. There are  usually two or  three transparent pink stripes on each white  band.


Less  common are  marbles with  a single transparent pink  stripe on each white  band. Some marbles exist  that  have two  pink bands, which are the same width as the two blue bands. These are called “beach ball” and are much rarer than the other types. There have also been a few marbles found with an odd  number of pink bands (three or five). These are  rare.


Marbles with mica  in the blue  bands are very rare. There have also been some marbles found with a blue strand in one of the pink strands or with a green strand in the blue  band. These are also  very rare,  but do not command any higher value.

 

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