Sea Glass Identification Resources

By Mary McCarthy, Education Chair

There are many places to research your sea glass and beachcombing finds. Books, Beachcombing magazine, internet research, and crowdsourcing information through social media sites are a few of the ways you can get information and discover more about your beach-found treasures, but perhaps the most valuable resource is knowing the local history of the area you’re treasure hunting. Was it a Victorian seaside resort, coastal landfill, historical shipping port, or what are some of the other reasons the materials are ending up on the beach? When you know the history of the area, you can discover more about the context and provenance of your finds and they become more meaningful.

Be judicious when getting information from social media groups and choose sources you trust, as often a great deal of misinformation is generated in throngs of comments on posts; just like there is a great deal of fake sea glass pretending to be genuine online, there is also a tremendous amount of false information out there.

Here is a list of online resources in order to help research your own finds. If you ever need help identifying finds, we always offer sea glass identification at our shows and can help with this online as well if you send clear photographs with good angles and size references.