Plymouth Rock Pieces on eBay

Well, what kind of rock is Plymouth Rock? I have no idea. But any geologist with an ounce of sense could at least compare the two and say whether it's the same kind of rock--I'd be amused if people are buying sedimentary rocks when the real deal is igneous, for instance--and you can also study samples under the microscope to determine mineral composition.

It's a shame that you had to point out being able to tell if it's the real thing or not, cause I've got a baggie of sand and dirt that the pilgrims cleaned off their shoes before the first Thanksgiving, and I was thinking of selling THAT on eBay...

A dozen years ago, the alleged Plymouth Rock was under a sort of shrine near the shore in the town of Plymouth -- not at the Plantation recreation site.

It would not have been difficult for someone to chip bits off, but as it is probably much the same rock as any lying around the area, it would be easier to perpetrate a fraud. Frauds on eBay? Surely that's never happened before!

Here's a picture:
http://nanosft.com/plymouth/rock1.html

Note that the Pilgrims didn't land *on* the rock as it exists in the shrine today.
http://www.pilgrimhall.org/Rock.htm

Souvenier hunters chipped away at Stonehenge, too.

What about carbon dating?

In that pavillion thing they have the official Plymoth Rock about 10-15 feet down, and you look over the rail at it. They say that it's Plymoth Rock, but there's no actual way to prove the Pilgrims stepped on it at all. Carbon dating would go back millions of years, not to 1620

Going simply on memory, carbon dating measures the amount of decay of the isotope Carbon 14 which is only found in organic matter, not stone. It is used to identify when the organic material died and thus stopped replenishing the Carbon 14 in it's system. Radiocarbon dating's upper limit is somewhere around 60,000 years.

Oh. My. God. Is there nothing that some people aren't stupid enough to buy? I thought that the company who are trying and SUCEEDING in selling air was bad enough! Really! I mean, a rock that you cannot carbon date! Its genious! Though I half expected while reading the article that it was going to say that the chunks had an engraving of Jesus, or Mary, or even Pope Jean Paul II on them!
Errrrr! Why didn't I think of that?

What would carbon dating prove? It's a rock, and it's so many years old, there are probably plenty of rocks in the world which are the same age as the Plymouth Rock

Suppose you could know it was a real piece of Plymouth Rock?
It's still just a rock.

it's rock in plymouth. no one "landed" on it. a freaking rock near where "pilgrims" landed. the first time the rock is mentioned it is described as "a great rock" in 1715. (95 years after the landing) it was engraved in 1880. a father told his son it was "where our forefathers first set foot" and a myth was born. why would anyone want a $900 piece of a myth. it is granite similar to the rocks found in your backyard, in the park, on that hill over there, and in my kitchen holding my sink in place. why would anyone want a $900 piece of a myth that is probably out of your neighbors side yard? everyone is stupid. makes some money off them.

Actually, it's not even near where the 'pilgrims' landed - about 90 miles away. They weren't even aiming for Massachusetts. They meant to land in Virginia, but were blown off course by a storm, and the crew of the ship refused to take them south - they were sick of them.

OMG poeple you cant carbon date a frickin rock. You can only carbon date organic matter that contains carbon 14.

There are some means of dating rock, but none that would apply here.

Actually, I'm selling about as verifiable a piece of the Plymouth Rock as you're going to find on ebay right now. The auction ends 1/29/07. Auction number 280073528870