• Color:  Dark Green
• Clarity:  Moderately Included (copper only)
• Origin:  Brazil
• Cut:  Custom Step
• Treatments:  None
• Measurements:  13.6 x 11.8 x 3.6 mm

A very interesting and rare inclusion gem - Tourmaline with platelets of native copper.  This stone was part of a very limited find of this material a number of years ago in Brazil.  Previously the only documented examples of copper platelets as inclusions in Tourmaline occurred with some of initial finds of Paraiba Tourmaline in the 1980's.  There is a great photo of a Paraiba with precipitated copper in Gems and Gemology, Fall 1994, pg. 180.  The platelets in this gem have the same morphology and have been identified as copper.  

One of the very largest and finest gems from this find, the stone has a deep green bodycolor which contrasts beautifully with the golden schiller effect.  The custom cutting was planned to maximize this - the stone is a large relatively flat tablet with the table parallel the broadest flash from the copper.  This focuses attention on the flash and gives the absolute largest size for the weight.  You can see how dynamic the piece is in the photos above - a slight movement to the correct angle and the flash becomes quite apparent.  An absolutely unique gem and quite rare - a cuprian stone in the purest sense.
 

$140 /carat - $989 total