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April 2008
 In our newsletter this month:
A New Source for Spinel
New and Interesting Gemstones
New Content at GemSelect
Gemstones Worth Knowing
Customer Questions
A New Source for Spinel
The distinction between precious and semi-precious stones is no longer used in the gem trade. That's because there are a number of fine and rare gems which may well be the equal of sapphire, ruby and emerald. Spinel, we think, is a good example.
 At one time spinel was most famous for being mistaken for other gems, especially ruby and sapphire. The most famous case is The Black's Prince Ruby in the Imperial State Crown of the United Kingdom. It turned out to be a spinel, not a ruby. But since this gem had been owned by British Royalty for over 600 years, it hasn't been renamed the Black Prince's Spinel. Undoubtedly it will be called a ruby forever.
But spinel is finally beginning to get the respect it deserves. The spinel from Burma has always been highly regarded by gem dealers, but the supply has never been sufficient to make spinel marketable in jewelry stores. In the last year or so we've seen some fine African spinel coming on the market and this new supply may enable spinel to reach a larger market.
 Spinel has been highly regarded by dealers for its excellent hardness (8 on the Mohs scale) and very good dispersion or fire. It is also one of the few singly refractive gems (along with diamond and garnet), which gives its color a special purity and intensity. And unlike ruby and sapphire, spinel is always untreated. That's a pretty impressive resume for any gemstone.
However, the main source for high quality spinel has been Burma, and that has made spinel very hard to find for most buyers. We are fortunate to be located in the main trading center for Burmese gems, so we get to see a lot of the Burmese supply. But even here in Thailand it can be difficult to find good Burmese spinel, especially red spinel in sizes over 1 carat.
 For red spinel, Burma is still the main source. But in other colors, the spinel from Tanzania is very impressive. We have been seeing excellent pinks, ranging from violet pink to red pink. The blues are superb, with the colors ranging from violet to gray blue to a sapphire-like blue to greenish blue. Most of the Tanzanian spinel has very good clarity, and we have been able to buy quite a few pieces with VVS or IF clarity. We have also found a number of pieces in larger sizes, with good availability in the 2 carat size and, with luck, the occasional piece in the 5 to 7 carat size. Prices on spinel are still very attractive, especially if you compare the prices to untreated sapphire and ruby. If the spinel supply increases to the point where the jewelry industry can begin to promote it, you can expect prices to increase substantially.
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| New and Interesting Gems -- updated November 9th |
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Watermelon Tourmaline from Nigeria: Watermelon tourmaline is one of the most distinctive gems in the world. We have just purchased a small number of exquisite pieces from Nigerian with outstanding color and clarity. These are the finest we've seen this year. |
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Boulder Opal from Australia: Boulder Opal is the second most prized form of opal, after black opal. The name derives from the fact that this opal is found embedded in ironstone boulders. Boulder opal is especially attractive because, like the black opal, it has a dark body tone which adds vibrancy to the play of color. We've just purchased a small lot of excellent pieces, in sizes between 4 and 15 carats. |
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Clinohumite from Tanzania: Clinohumite is a rare mineral. It is a member of the humite group of minerals, which includes humite, clinohumite, chondrodite, and norbergite. Only three sources of gem-quality clinohumite are known: the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan, the Taymyr region of northern Siberia and the Mahenge plateau of Tanzania. Usually clinohumite is found in sizes under 1 carat but we just have acquired a small number of new pieces from Tajikistan in the 2-3 carat size. |
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Huge Topaz from Brazil: Gem-quality minerals are sometimes found in exceptionally large sizes. We've acquired some natural topaz from Brazil in sizes between 360 and 507 carats. We currently have 4 pieces in a light champagne color with outstanding clarity (all of been graded IF). Collectors take note. |
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Fluorite from Namibia: Fluorite is said to be the most colorful mineral in the world. We've just bought a new stock of some very colorful pieces, including electric greens and blues and some fascinating multicolor pieces. Most of the new pieces are in the 10 to 45 carat size, with a few larger stones, all with excellent clarity. We've recently added some very colorful cabochons as well. |
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Color-Change Diaspore from Turkey: Diaspore, sometimes marketed under the name Zultanite, is a color change gem from Turkey recently introduced to the international market. Under natural or fluorescent light, Diapsore has a kiwi green color, with flashes of yellow. Diaspore displays a champagne color under incandescent lighting, and when exposed to subdued lighting, such as candlelight, has a pinkish hue. We've recently bought a substantial number of new pieces, with a good choice of cuts and sizes. |
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Snowflake Obsidian from Mexico: Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass. It is formed when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools without crystal growth.In some stones, the inclusion of small, white, radially clustered crystals of cristobalite in the black glass produce a blotchy or snowflake pattern, and this is known in the gem trade as snowflake obsidian. |
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Unheated Sapphire from Tanzania, Madagascar and Thailand: Our unheated sapphires have been very popular and we continue to increase our stock (now over 700 pieces). For the discriminating gem buyer who will accept nothing less than 100% natural, you'll find pink, blue, green, yellow and violet pieces, all guaranteed to be unheated. You may be surprised how affordable these are in the smaller sizes. |
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Seraphinite from Russia: Seraphinite is a trade name for a particular form of clinochlore, a member of the chlorite group. The dark green color of seraphinite is enhanced by a silvery and feathery shimmer caused by mica inclusions. Seraphinite was named for the seraphim, the highest order of angels, because of the feather-like appearance of the chatoyant fibers in the stone. This fascinating gemstone is a new addition our inventory. |
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Top Grade Amethyst from Brazil: We've just acquired some top grade natural amethyst from Brazil in very large sizes, ranging from about 20 to 75 carats. These are all VVS or IF clarity in the richest purple we've seen in amethyst in a long time. If you've been looking for a very special piece of amethyst, you'll want to check these out. |
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Demantoid Garnet from Namibia: Demantoid is the rarest and most valuable of the garnets, and is one of the most difficult to find of all colored gems. It is one of the few colored gemstones with a luster and brilliance similar to diamond. We have built up a stock of more than 100 pieces of Namibian demantoid, including some very fine matched pairs. |
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Amber from Poland: Amber is the fossilized hardened resin of the pine tree, Pinus succinifera, formed mainly in the Eocene epoch of the Tertiary period, about 50 million years ago. Amber has been used since prehistoric times for jewelry, amulets and religious objects. The most prized pieces contain inclusions of insects or plants or pyrites. Most amber is found in the Baltic region. We buy amber just a few times a year from our source in Poland and we've just added a new stock. |
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Turquoise from Afghanistan: Turquoise has been known and valued for thousands of years. We've bought some new pieces from Afghanistan, in an interesting variety of blue and blue-green hues. We've also found some of the popular apple-green turquoise that we first carried last year, and some superb matched pairs in blue. |
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Huge Star Rose Quartz from South Africa: We carry many large gemstones, but none as large as these Star Rose Quartz. We've collected 9 pieces over 100 carats, with the largest weighing in at an amazing 974 carats. The star effect in rose quartz is unusual in any size, but quite rare in these very large stones. |
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Axinite from Tanzania: Axinite is a group of brown to violet-brown or reddish brown minerals that sometimes occur in gem quality. Axinite is distinctive for its strong vitreous luster when polished, and its interesting pyro- and piezo-electric properties. Axinite is also popular with mineral collectors due to its unusual crystal structure. We have found a small stock of golden brown Axinite from Tanzania. |
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Spinel from Burma: We buy fine spinel whenever we can find it, and we've recently added some very fine pieces of Burmese spinel. You'll find red, violet, orange, blue and gray in a variety of shapes and sizes, including a good selection of pairs and lots. |
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Blue Sapphire from Madagascar, Ceylon and Tanzania: One of the most classic of all colored gemstones, the blue sapphire is always fashionable. This brilliant and hard-wearing gemstone is perfect for any kind of jewelry. We've added many new stones to our stock of more than 400 blue sapphires, including a number of excellent cornflower blue pieces. |
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Jadeite from Burma: Jade has been known and treasured for more than 7,000 years. But only in 1863 was it discovered that jade is actually not a single mineral. What was traditionally called jade is in fact two separate and distinct minerals: jadeite and nephrite. Jadeite is the rarer and more valuable jade, with the most famous deposits coming from Burma. We have verified samples of our Jadeite at the AIGS gemological lab in Bangkok. You'll find a good range of colors in these, including white, green and lavender. |
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Spessartite Garnet from Mozambique: We have added a large number of new pieces to our extensive inventory of this very popular gem. We now have over 500 pieces in stock, in mandarin and red-orange, in both cabochon and faceted. The range of sizes and quality grades is extensive. Our most recent additions are in the best mandarin orange color, mainly in smaller sizes. |
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Color-Change Garnet from Tanzania and Madagascar: We've recently found some rare Color-Change Garnet from Tanzania with a dramatic color change from greenish-brown to red pink. We have a small number of pieces, mostly eye-clean, in the 1 to 2 carat size. We've added these to our substantial stock of Color-Change Garnet from Madagascar. |
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Sphene from Sri Lanka: We have added some excellent new pieces to our stock of this rare gemstone famous for its remarkable dispersion or fire. These are bright golden and green pieces in interesting shapes and cuts, including a number of rounds in smaller sizes. Sphene tends to have inclusions, but we've found a number of eye-clean pieces. |
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Emerald from Colombia: We have just received a new stock of Colombian emeralds with rich color and good transparency. These are mainly ovals and pears in smaller sizes, ideal for earrings and ring settings. |
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New Content at GemSelect
We add hundreds of new gems to our inventory every day. But we also add new content to our site each week as well, in the form of articles and reference material.
Recently we've added new articles on topics ranging from gemstone investing to gemstone collecting. If you're interested in gemstone history, see our recent piece on the history of briolettes. For buying advice, you might like to read our new articles on best value gemstones and buying gems at wholesale prices.
Gemstones Worth Knowing
Each month we focus on one of the lesser known gemstones. This month's featured stone is Rhodolite Garnet.
Rhodolite garnet is the name applied to a mixture of pyrope and almandite garnet. Rhodolite tends to be lighter in color than most other kinds of red garnet. It can be easily confused with ruby because of the similarity in color. The mixture of red and violet in rhodolites is highly desirable, and purple or purple-red is the most sought after color.
Deposits are found in Brazil, India, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand and the USA (North Carolina).
For more information see our Rhodolite Garnet Information page.
Customer Questions
Every month we answer questions of general interest from our customers. Please feel free to send your questions to help@gemselect.com. |
| Q: |
I was looking at the clarity grades for your gems and noticed most of them were graded VVS, VS and SI but some weren't graded with those letters at all. Why is that? RK, Canada |
| A: |
The clarity grades of IF, VVS, VS, SI and I1 apply to transparent gemstones, where the interior of the stone is visible. If a gem is translucent or opaque, you can't see inclusions. So these gems are simply graded as translucent or opaque. You will typically see this grading for cabochons and even for some faceted gems such as fire opal or black tourmaline.
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| Q: |
How often do you add new gems to your website? Do you do it once a week? What day should I look to see the new gems? Thanks! DSK, USA |
| A: |
We add new gems to our website every day except Sunday (we try not to work on Sunday). New gems can be found on our New Arrivals page, which will you show you all the gems we've added in the last 5 days. |
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| A final note -- If you send us email, please be assured that we answer all our email very promptly, 6 days a week. But we sometimes have problems with spam filters on the receiving end, so please adjust the settings on your mail client so you can receive mail from help@gemselect.com.
Happy gem hunting,
Your friends at GemSelect
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