15 Facts About Sea glass

Sea glass takes 20 to 40 years, and sometimes as much as 100 to 200 years, to acquire its characteristic texture and shape.

Sea glass begins as normal shards of broken glass that are then persistently tumbled and ground until the sharp edges are smoothed and rounded.

Sea glass can be found all over the world, but the beaches of the northeast United States, Bermuda, Scotland, the Isle of Man, northeast and northwest England, Mexico, Hawaii, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Nova Scotia, Australia, Italy and southern Spain are famous for their bounty of sea glass, bottles, bottle lips and stoppers, art glass, marbles, and pottery shards.

Color of sea glass is determined by its original source, and most sea glass comes from bottles.

Uncommon colors of sea glass include a type of green, which comes primarily from early to mid-1900s Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper, and RC Cola bottles as well as beer bottles.

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Purple sea glass is very uncommon, as is citron, opaque white, cobalt and cornflower blue, and aqua .

Some shards of black Sea glass are quite old, originating from thick eighteenth-century gin, beer, and wine bottles.

Round, mallet, and squat cylinder black Sea glass bottles were all made, and shape correlates to age of the bottles with some overlap.

The majority of black Sea glass found on the island of Jamaica is English Sea glass produced from the later 1600s until the 1800s in England.

Sea glass arrived in Jamaica with the old world supply chain first established in the 15th century.

Sea glass is reported to have landed at Dry Harbor, Discovery Bay on the north coast.

Black Sea glass is often green or brown when held up to light, although it appears black to the unaided eye.

In texture and color black sea glass resembles black beach rock, very much resembling the extrusive igneous rock basalt, or weathered black obsidian, a natural black volcanic glass.

One of the most reliable indicators for natural sea glass is a "C" shaped design all over the outside of the sample.

Sea glass usually comes from broken glass bottles or other household items, so pieces found on beaches will not be perfectly shaped, unlike artificial sea glass, often sold as beach glass.