0.26 ct. Vanadium Prismatine

Absolutely one of the rarest gem species to come the market in the last 25 years.  The story begins with a find of very intensely colored green gems in the Usambara Moutains of Tanzania in 2007.  It was suspected that these were Kornerupine – there had previously been some unusual bluish-green gem Kornerupine found in southern Tanzania.  The color was significantly different however, a green without the strong pleochroism of the other material, so the gems were sent to GIA for further study.  The findings were highly interesting; the gems were found to contain a significant amount of Vanadium, likely responsible for the color, but also the presence of a significant amount of boron was detected.  The presumed amount of boron pushed the stones into a related species – Prismatine – that is the boron rich Kornerupine analog.  Never before (or since for that matter) has gem grade Prismatine been located.  These gems were written up for the Spring 2009 issue of GIA’s Gems and Gemology. 

This is a simply gorgeous example of species and one of the largest we have been able to source - a superb emerald radiant gem gem with the stunning intense green bodycolor that typifies the species.  The gem is eye clean, only with 10x will you see a very few small included crystals.  Excellent polish and an extremely respectable size for these, the largest gem known is significantly under 1 carat in weight.  The GIA article reports less than 100 gems had initially been cut from this rough - an ultimate rarity for the gem collector.

$425 total