The striped flint and its fame in my country

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Have you ever heard about it?

I pride myself on living in the town that is very famous for it - when you roam the streets of the Old Town part of my hometown, you can see the striped flint jewellery and figurines put on display of so many souvenir shops - the striped flint is like, EVERYWHERE in there, it seems to have dominated my hometown It's one of the most famous things this region of my country is famous for. I read that many famous foreign stars wear this striped grey stone jewellery. I myself, have only one commemorative coin (I got it today, I won it in an online contest, together with other gadgets related to my town and a book on it) with a tiny, flat, round piece of a striped flint put in, which I am very proud of.

For there is only ONE place in the WHOLE world, in which the striped flint is found and it happens to be the very region of Poland, where I live and where my ancestors come from. This sort of flint is characterized by a more or less regular system of concentric dark and pale stripes, claimed to resemble rolling waters. It's a regional export product, as a large deposit of this stone is located in Lesser Poland, where I am from. It got so incredibly famous for its rarity and, what is more, its distinctive look. It is one of the best known stones in our region of Poland. The jewellery with this grey stone is as popular in here, as the jewellery with amber is popular in the seaside region of my homeland. It is literally, a sign of my town.

Have you ever heard of it? Do you like what it looks like at all?

Never heard of it before, but from what I see when I google it, it looks really cool!

On another note, I've noticed there are quite a few forum members from Poland. It looks like it's the one non-English-speaking country with the most members here. Do you have any theories on why Poland specifically?

It got famous elsewhere because so many celebrities from the western world wear it

http://www.zamek-sandomierz.pl/sklep/mo ... nt&print=1 And this is the coin I own

As for why there are so many Poles on here - I don't know myself, I must state that I have no educated guess (nor even an uneducated one for that matter) as for the reason for why WP abounds in my compatriots. Maybe it's because so many of them live in other countries where they have gone to look for a better life - in the UK especially - and they learnt English living in there well enough to be able to express their thoughts and opinions in the foreign language well? I can't think of any other reason for this state of affairs but for it's being a pure coincidence.

It might be the case, it might not be, but it sounds like a decent educated guess to me.

Or maybe it's just because we have only one Asperger Syndrome issues related message board in my native tongue and although it's already well developed - it was created back in 2006, after all - it's not as big as this one, so Poles look for something better in this respect? Something that allows one to find more pieces of information on AS, I mean. Or maybe they want to practise their English, participating in discussions on a foreign forum? Or maybe it's all about the number of those aspies from here - here there are much more people than on the Polish board, so the Poles can find more interesting interlocutors on WP? The Polish board is dominated by maybe a dozen people - or even less - who participate in their discussions on there, while here there are so MAAAAAAANY aspies to talk to Those may be the other reasons, as for why it's Polish people who outnumber any other WP members from non-English speaking countries. Or maybe the number of all that info on AS one can find in the Polish area of the Internet is limited in comparison with the analogical one in English? I believe those may be the causes of this, you are asking about

Hm. More people learning English and interested in practicing it + fewer/smaller native-language resources/spaces online. Maybe that's the specific combination that other countries don't have. Makes sense!

When I read Striped Flint in the subject line, I actually thought you were talking about a stripped lighter like a stripped Zippo I never smoked but about the only time I hear the word Flint is when people are talking about lighters or starting fires. Being tired is not helping me either. At least I got a good laugh at myself

Yes, I've heard of it... but I'm from Poland and a bit interested in geology

LOL! I never smoke either (but for two times in my life, out of curiosity, but it was just symbolic) and I would never think about this

Magz, do you own any piece of such a stone yourself?

Not yet.
I'm not much of a gatherer.

I am one, unlike you On my shelves there are loads and loads of figurines, minerals, plushies, candles, boxes etc.

My younger daughter collects stones but she hasn't got any striped flint yet. The most interesting things in her drawer are probably fluorites.

I have a sodalite, chalcedony etc. I own also some seemingly inconspicuous piece of stone but with the fossil of a shell on I found it when I was still a teenager and I kept it for all those years.

Back in 3rd grade of primary school, I had a "boyfriend" who teached me to spot small fossils in gravel I passed the skill to my kids

My girlfriend is like that as well & has quite a lot of stuff like that.


Fluorite is pretty. I saw some very pretty 1s a couple years ago at the county fair but the guy at the booth just had the fluorite for display There is a local shop that sells some stones/rocks & a wide variety of interesting cool stuff but I never saw fluorite there. I never saw striped flint there either but if I see a nice one at a good price I would probably get it. I did get some stones & rocks from there thou including more than a few of various crystal skulls I haven't been to that shop since the pandemic started thou cuz it's near the bus station & I almost never take buses anymore(we rely on my girlfriend's family to take us places or we walk to a couple nearby stores). I really hope that shop is still around & I should think about checking it out next time I do need to take a bus & have the time. I bought a fairly detailed Ammonite fossil online a few years ago from a site I was buying some knives/blades & other kewl stuff from. I had searched on ebay & Amazon years ago for an Ammonite fossil & didn't find any. I like that there's a Pokemon based on it. Yes I know Omanyte is very lame in the Yellow, Red, & Blue games but being based on a real life extinct animal I could get a fossil of is kewl. That site had very little stones & fossils & is no longer around. As a general rule I won't buy rocks/stones online. I want to see how kewl they look in person. Pix on a computer monitor don't do em justice, lighting & camera can vary a lot & i cant visualize size measurements. I am willing to make exceptions thou if the visual appeal is less of a factor & the price is nice.