Genuine Baltic Amber is harvested one piece at a time by hand, along the shores of the Baltic Sea, which is why these are Synthetic. Amber dates back 40 to 70 Million years, when there where dinosaurs roaming around, so it is fair to say that it is very durable, and has been in style for a long, long time. Genuine Amber is chemically inert, so is widely used in body piercings.