Category Archives: collecting gems

Foreign Investment Scams, Slouching Toward Disaster II

by Richard W. Wise, G.G.

Of Dentists and Doughboys:

What is it about gemstones that gives buyers the idea that somewhere, somehow they can get something for nothing? Why are dentists particularly vulnerable? Over the course of my career I have spoken to not less than five members of that gullible fraternity who “invested” in gems. One salesman told my dentist that Japanese investors were eager to pay twice the price for low grade aquarium gravel contained in that little sealed packet. “Why didn’t you suggest that the salesman board a jet to Tokyo and reap those high profits”? I asked Dr. Pain. He shrugged, smiled sheepishly and looked down at his shoes.

Did you hear the one about the smart New York lawyer who, after I told him about a buying trip to Thailand and Burma, blithely asked, “Yeah, but do they know what they’ve got?” Well, yes Virgina, these folks have have been mining and marketing gems since the Bronze Age, I think it’s fair to say that they have finally figured it out.

A Potentially Explosive Investment:

I suppose the neophyte gem investor is really no different from the clueless homeowner who believed those friendly folks at Country-Wide when they told him he could support his lifestyle by the continued plundering of the equity in his home and is now so far underwater he can’t even draw breath through a snorkel—a fool and his money…I remember another occasion, a young couple, yoga students who had spent time in an ashram in India. They met an Indian fellow who’s father owned a ruby mine. Despite my warnings they returned to India and sunk $10,000 into dyed and oiled ruby bead made from low-grade East African rough that originally sold for $150.00 per kilo.

Emerald Mine, Panjshir Valley, Afghanistan: Photo courtesy Vincent Pardieu

More recently I was approached by two army officers currently serving in Afghanistan to appraise gemstones that they had bought for investment. One of the men, a lieutenant who seemed particularly eager to buy, told me he was a specialist in the very dangerous profession of mine clearance. I advised him to stop buying and volunteered to take a look at his purchases. After vetting his collection which included lead-glass filled ruby and low end tanzanite, I suggested that purchasing gems for investment on the open market in Afghanistan could very likely have a more explosive impact on his finances than his current day job.

Our service members should be aware that there appears to be an entire industry in Afghanistan, similar to the one that existed in Pattaya, Thailand during the Vietnam War, dedicated to fleecing members of the American military. According to Gary Bowersox, a gem dealer who travels frequently to Afghanistan and co-author of Gemstones of Afghanistan: “The Afghanistan market is flooded with treated and synthetic gems where uneducated Afghan gem dealers are selling volumes of gems to foreign soldiers who are also uneducated in gemology.”

Professional appraiser, Charlene Bradbury, G.G. has appraised 50-100 stones brought back by approximately ten servicemen from Afghanistan over the past two years. she notes that 90% were either synthetic with a fairly large proportion of lead glass filled rubies. Most others were low grade, lead glass filled rubies.

Getting The Lead Out: (above)Lead glass filled ruby after heating that removed some of the glass. Below: Same ruby under magnification. Photo: Shane F. McClure

Our Responsibility:

I know that I promised more on the topic of Online Gem Evaluation and I will, but I really feel that my experience with the two army officers is a cautionary tale that needed to be told. Our boys in the military are doing a dirty and very dangerous job for us in Afghanistan and I believe that we, as members of the gem fraternity, have a responsibility to protect them in whatever small way we can.

Countdown To Tucson:

The annual free-for-all smorgasbord known collectively as the Tucson Gem Shows will begin at the end of this month. I have been attending the shows for over twenty-five years and have watched awestruck by the spectacular growth of this annual event. My wife and I spend two weeks and work every day and still find it impossible to take in all of the shows. As always, I enjoy the hunt. It can be frustrating but there is nothing more satisfying than the thrill of sourcing a particularly fine gem at an out of the way booth, tucked into some back alley show.

Online Gem Evaluation or Slouching Toward Disaster:

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by Richard W. Wise, G.G.,

author: Secrets Of The Gem Trade.

With the commercialization of the internet we have entered a new era for collectors of all stripes. Whether you are interested in antiquarian books or colored gemstones there is a great deal of information available and the opportunity to compare prices for the best deal.

If you are buying a commodity and I define commodities as items of uniform quality that are produced in multiples, comparisons are straight forward. Deciding between two new copies of the latest Jacky Collins romance novel is simply a question of price though you have to watch the shipping charge.

When it comes to collectibles, such as old coins where condition is a primary determinant of price, the buying decision becomes a bit more difficult. Two identical 1870 U. S. ten dollar gold pieces will vary dramatically depending upon condition.

Purchasing gemstones is much more complicated. First, no two gems are alike. Even colorless round brilliant cut diamonds that are traded with “certificates” that grade each of the four C’s vary in the relative percentages of brilliance, dispersion and scintillation. Even the so-called “ideal cuts” will vary markedly because the definition of what constitutes ideal varies from lab to lab.

Colored gemstones present an even broader set of variables and presents an almost insurmountable barrier to effective online comparison. In gemstones, color is the most important determinant of value and sub-divides into three factors, or values; hue, saturation and tone. Accurate grading of a gemstone depends upon two factors; the lighting that the gem is viewed in and the viewer. Change either and you no longer have consistent or accurate grading.

Online Color Comparison; The Impossible Dream:

The rise of internet forums has lead to the dubious practice of online grading by pixel. A neophyte gem buyer will post an image of a prospective purchase with a plea to the forum members to basically appraise the gem and by comparing quality with the purchase price, determine if said newby is getting a good deal. Unfortunately a number of forum members, many of whom ought to know better, jump in and tender their opinions. Though many online grading gurus would disagree, this sort of color comparison is nearly impossible.

There are a host of variables each of which will fundamentally alter the color that you think, you see. The image itself was taken by a specific camera in a specific lighting environment. Each make and model of camera has specific pluses and minus when it comes to accurately rendering color. Some are good with greens, some with blues others with reds. The color temperature of the specific lighting will make a big difference is the color you see. Natural light is reddish at dawn, turns yellow in the late morning, is neutral white at noon then turns bluish in the afternoon and finally reddish again at sunset. Artificial light can be controlled to emit almost any hue all of which affect the apparent color of gemstones.

Apparent color can also be altered by easily altered by editing software. Photoshop, the world’s most popular color editing software employs sophisticated tools that can easily alter the hue/saturation/tone of an image. With five minutes of training, the most unsophisticated Photoshop user can be taught to turn a ruby into an amethyst or even turn it green as an emerald. Though I have seen some forum gurus claim to be able to detect images that have been altered, such claims are pure nonsense.

Now we get to the monitors. Each monitor is different. 24 bit monitors differ markedly from 16 bits and from manufacturer to manufacturer and even day to day. Jennifer Robbins author of Learning Web Design tells her readers: “Let go of precise color control. Yes, once again, the best practice is to acknowledge that the colors you pick won’t look the same to everyone, and live with it. Precise color is not a priority in this medium where the colors you see can change based on the platform, monitor bit-depth, or even the angle of the laptop screen.”

No Computer Monitor on Earth…

$On one popular forum this spessartite garnet, offered by a Thai vendor, was said to show brown. Anyone with experience photographing this gem variety knows that the camera will often show brown where there is none. A result of off axis refraction.$

On one popular forum this spessartite garnet, offered by a Thai vendor, was said be brown or brownish. Though all my monitor shows is deep orange, those with experience photographing this gem variety know that the camera will often show brown where none exists. This is a result of lighting and off axis refraction.

The problem in accepting Ms. Robbin’s advise is that precise color is a priority nay a necessity in color grading gemstones. The Colorscan grading system pioneered by C. R. Beasley, founder of American Gemological Laboratories (AGL), the only U. S. lab that quality grades colored stones uses 36 different hue/tone combinations together with two degrees of gray masks yielding 108 different colors each associated with a specific quality level and therefore price, in blue sapphire. No color monitor on earth, even if properly calibrated can render all these combinations. The current director, Gemologist Christopher Smith, uses sample gemstones for stone to stone comparisons, he says he has literally hundreds of sample stones.

Viewed face-up, a gemstone is a mosaic of color, it is a complex scene. A static image captures but one aspect of a gem under a specific lighting environment. Many factors will effect the image you see. Lighting, viewing angle, lens and angles of refraction. The images shown here illustrate some of the problems.

I’ve chosen to discuss brown in orange gemstones because brown is dark toned orange. This means that the color you see is particularly vulnerable to misinterpretation. The gemstone acts a a prism, bending and bouncing light about like a demented pinball. If the light ray refracts at an angle from the perpendicular, off axis, the hue will appear darker, if totally away from the eye, black.

This professionally taken image of a 3.29 carat Nigerian spessartite from my inventory is almost identical in color (hue/saturation/tone) with the 7.46 carat stone at left yet it appears on my monitor as distinctly more orange and 15% darker in tone. Photo: Jeff Scovil

This 7.46 carat spessartite shows visible brown. It is from my own inventory so I can state with certainty that the stone itself has absolutely no brown.

In the image, this 7.46 carat spessartite shows a distinct visible brown. It is from my own inventory so I can state with certainty that the stone is a rich, vivid pure orange with absolutely no brown secondary hue or mask. On my monitor, the stone the image appears distinctly yellowish with brownish scintillation. Compare to the image of the 3.29 carat stone at right. Photo: Jeff Scovil

The Nuances of Grading:

Few jewelers and fewer collectors ever have the opportunity to see the complete range of quality possible in any given gem variety, be it sapphire, ruby, emerald or spessartite. Without that overview a grader lacks context. As the quality of a given gem approaches perfection, the beauty and rarity and therefore the price of a gemstone will increase dramatically. In the next post I will discuss the subtle nuances of grading that define those gems that are truly transcendent. Stay Tuned or sign up. You can receive GemWise by email or RSS feed, don’t miss another gonzo post, look along the right side and sign up ! I don’t guarantee that you will always agree but I promise it will never be boring. Comments welcome!

Golconda orType IIa Diamonds; Big Prices at Auction

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By Richard W. Wise, G.G.

(portions originally published in 2008)

Another Auction Record? Well Not Quite:

On Tuesday, Christies sold a 27.03 carat DVVS1 cushion cut type IIa diamond for 3.55 million or $131,502 per carat. In a fit of salesman-like overstatement, Rahul Kadakia, referring to a 30 carat D-Flawless type IIa that sold last year for $130,000 per carat, stated that “This represents a 45% increase in the value of top diamonds in just twelve month’s time.” While it is true that a flawless diamond will command a significant premium over a mere VVS, Kadakia is ignoring recent history. At a Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels auction held in New York on April 17th, a 24.42 carat D color Internally Flawless diamond sold for 3.6 million or better than $148,443 per carat. One day earlier at Christies another rectangular step cut diamond weighing 27.91 carats (pictured above left) sold for 4.04 Million or $145,933 per carat.

Collectors Paying Big Premiums for type IIa diamonds:

Sales talk and hyperbole aside, Type IIa diamonds are regularly knocking down auction records. Gems of this type are often called “Golconda” diamonds after the famous Indian mines that supplied a majority of the world’s diamonds until they were mined out in the early 18^th Century. Collectors, particularly Europeans are willing to pay high premiums for these rare gems and for good reason.

Most of the world’s big name diamonds, those mined before 1725, the Koh-I-Noor, The Sancy and for that matter, The Hope diamond came from the fabled diamond mines of India, all are type II diamonds.

Type IIa is a rare type of diamond that contains no measurable amounts of Nitrogen. Nitrogen is the impurity that imparts the yellow color in diamonds. As a result “white” diamonds of this type tend to be colorless (D-F) colors and have few inclusions. (see GemWise:http://www.thefrenchblue.com/rww_blog/?p=29

Type IIa diamonds have unique characteristics. Stones of this type are famous for their exceptional lack of color, a color that goes beyond D and is sometimes referred to as super-D.

“…the old Golconda stones were by comparison ‘whiter than white.’ Place a Golconda diamond from an old piece of jewelry alongside a modern recently cut D-color diamond, and the purity of the Golconda stone with become evident.”

Benjamin Zucker; Gems & Jewels; A Connoisseur’s Guide

Type IIa diamonds have also been found in Brazil and at South Africa’s Premier Mine. It is estimated that only about 1% of the world’s diamonds are type IIa. The auction houses tend to lump together all type IIa stones, but be warned; not all type IIa diamonds are created equal. It is not enough that a stone fits the scientific definition. A true Golconda or perhaps I should say Golconda-type gem is not only “whiter than white”, diamonds of this type have other characteristics that contribute to their unique beauty, characteristics that sets them apart from the common herd.

Gems of The Finest Water:

Prior to the invention of modern terminology, exceptionally fine diamonds were referred to as “gems of the finest water”. The “term” water goes back to at least the Seventeenth Century. Water combines two concepts; color and transparency. For the purposes of rhyming I have renamed this later quality crystal and include it along with color, clarity and cut as one of the “Four Cs of Connoisseurship”. For a gem to be truly considered fine it must have both exceptional color and crystal so “super-d” too refers to more than just the total absence of color:

“This designation (super-d), one that sounds about as romantic as a name-brand motor oil refers to antique diamonds from India’s legendary Golconda mines—stones that are reputed to exhibit an extraordinary transparency.”

Richard W. Wise; Secrets of The Gem Trade, The Connoisseur’s Guide To Precious Gemstones

The True Blue White Diamonds

Type IIa diamonds have yet another characteristic, one that is not well understood or even well known among gem professionals; under certain conditions the stones will emit a blue glow in daylight.

The mechanism that produces this phenomenon is not well understood but it is not ultra violet fluorescence. About one third of all diamonds fluoresce blue under ultra-violet light. A few of these, diamonds with very high fluorescence, will actually appear milky or foggy, i.e. lose transparency in daylight. Golconda-type IIa diamonds, rarely possess fluorescence in any meaningful degree:

In a paper presented in 1975 at the 15^th International Gemmological Conference, gemologist and author Herbert Tillander made the following observations:

“This type (type II) includes all natural blue diamonds, the only current source of which is the Premier Mine and some really blue-white stones without fluorescence.”

“Type II diamonds in general do not fluoresce although they give a bluish afterglow.”

Herbert Tillander, The Hope Diamond and its Lineage, p. 7

The problem is that the blue glow is quixotic and unreliable; Like the famous green flash at sunset that is sought, usually after a couple of Margaritas, by Caribbean vacationers, this phenomenon refuses to dance to the gemologist’s tune.

“Here, in the afterglow of day, we keep our rendezvous beneath the blue And, in the same and sweet old way I fall in love again as I did then.”Twilight Time,

The Three Suns

French 17th Century gem dealer, Jean Baptiste Tavernier

My love affair with this curious phenomenon began at about 2:30 one sunny late June afternoon in the Berkshires. A client and I were comparing two 10 carat type IIa diamonds. Both had GIA certificates, both graded D-Flawless with no fluorescence; one, a modern radiant and the second an Old European, said to be an old Golconda stone that looked like the Regent’s younger sibling. We placed the two together in the afternoon sun, suddenly a phenomenon like a blue haze appeared to dance above the old cushion, while the modern cut stone just sat quietly.

“…the never failing test for correctly ascertaining the water is afforded by taking the stone under a leafy tree and in the green shadow one can easily detect if it is blue.”

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, 1689

The old Golconda diamonds exhibited these three characteristics, ultra-colorlessness, a high degree of transparency and, if Tavernier is to be believed, a delicate blue glow. Tavernier as quoted above bought all his diamonds in India. Given his statement it would seem to follow that in the original meaning of the term, a blue white diamond was not, as most experts believe, a blue fluorescent stone but rather a non-fluorescent Golconda diamond.

“The Regent possesses that unique limpidity characteristic of so many of the finest Indian diamonds together with a beautiful light blue tinge.”

Ian Balfour, Famous Diamonds

Balfour gives the following description of the 135.92 carat Queen of Holland diamond (pictured left)

“Yet there are experts who, after examining it think that the ‘Queen of Holland’ is a typical Golconda stone. It has been classified as an ‘intense blue’: although it is a white diamond it does possesses a definite blue tint, rather like the colour of cigarette smoke. The Gemological Institute of America has graded the ‘Queen of Holland’ as ‘internally flawless’ and ‘D’ colour…”

Ian Balfour, Famous Diamonds

Very little of any information about Golconda diamonds exists in the current or historical literature. This explains why so few experts are aware of Golconda-type IIa diamonds and their characteristic beauty marks. Specialists that I consulted, at both Christies and Sotheby’s, were totally unaware of the phenomenon of the blue glow. Perhaps this is because, in at least some cases, this ethereal phenomenon is, as I have said, quixotic. It only appears under certain as yet indefinable conditions. It can be seen in sunlight and most gem experts, particularly those in New York, don’t get out much and when they do in the polluted haze that hangs over The City, perhaps the phenomenon is not visible at all.

Mystery Solved?

I had a conversation with Tom Moses who is GIA’s point man on grading fancy color diamonds. Finally a living person other than myself who has seen this affect. Moses is indeed familiar with the blue phenomenon which he describes as the Tyndell Effect similar to the affect that makes the sky blue. This same cause was suggested by Fancy Color diamond specialist Stephen Hofer in a conversation I had with him two years ago.

According to Moses, Type IIa diamonds usually do not fluoresce or if they do, the fluorescence is so weak that it is not reported on GIA’s grading reports. The blue glow is not at all characteristic of a specific location; Moses has seen it is Type IIa diamonds from South Africa, Brazil and Russia. Only a small percentage of type IIa diamonds exhibit this blue glow.

Boldly Going Where No Lab Rat Has Gone Before

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Boldly going where No Lab-rat has gone before.

by Richard W. Wise, G.G.

Gemological Laboratories are under increasing pressure to add quality grading to their traditional role of determining origin and treatment of gemstones. One laboratory, AGL had been doing this for several years. However, recently under the aegis of the Lab Harmonizing Committee several of the leading labs have decided to aggressively go where no lab has gone before into the world of marketing. Gem Labs have entered the nomenclature business and into a firestorm of controversy .

The question of nomenclature is often more about tradition than science. You can study internal inclusions and make a determination about treatments and point out what specific anomalies led to your conclusions but how do you decide what to name a gem? The recent flap over Mozambique cuprian tourmaline that I covered in an earlier post is an excellent example. http://gemwiseblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_archive.html

Traditionally we name a gemstone based on species and variety but what happens in the case of a gem that is of the species corundum but derives its name strictly from a mix of colors? What gem am I thinking of? I’ll give you a hint; padparadscha sapphire.

In my book Secrets Of The Gem Trade, The Connoisseur’s Guide To Precious Gemstones, www.secretsofthegemtrade.com, following the late great GIA gemologist Richard Liddicoat, I define padparadscha as a light to medium tone of pinkish orange to orangey pink. Up until recently, labs have avoided the issue by simply calling the colors; “pinkish orange” and so forth.

A consortium of gem labs under the title: The Laboratory Manual Harmonization Committee (LMHC) met in Milan and has drawn up a standardized definition of padparadscha. The LMHC consists of seven of the world’s major laboratories (AGTA Gem Testing Center, CISGEM (Milan), GAAJ (Japan), GIA (USA), Gemological Institute of Thailand, Gübelin Gem Lab (Switzerland) and SSEF Swiss Gemmological Institute (Switzerland). Some of these labs, excluding for the moment GIA-GTL, have begun to call and consumers have begun to demand a lab certificate that uses the term padparadscha to describe the stone. The question is, where is this definition coming from and is this the beginning of a brave new world wherein laboratory gemologists begin to dictate to dealers and connoisseurs?

“Well”, I can hear you say, “somebody’s got to cut through all the confusion.” and I agree. But, be careful what you wish for. Leaving aside the question of how this definition was arrived at, like it or not, once established the criteria determined by the labs will become the accepted definition. Are we ready for this and what in the training of a gemologist prepares them for this role? I received my Graduate Gemologist diploma some years back and I can tell that what a neophyte Graduate Gemologist doesn’t know about quality in gemstones would fill many volumes. A newly minted G.G. is little more than an apprentice scientist. Oh sure, he learns the GIA diamond grading system but…

According to Richard Hughes well known author and gemologist with the AGTA gem laboratory which makes him one of the most prominent lab-rats, laboratories have no business making such calls. He was particularly upset by the fact that the LMHC did not include a representative from Sri Lanka at the meetings where the decision was made (I mean where does the term come from?). Hughes also had problems with the adoption of a printed color chart developed by Franck Notari (GIA Geneva). Hughes makes the point that the definition of padparadscha is fuzzy at best and he feels that the insistence on hard a fast definitions is not appropriate. As proof of this assertion, Hughes did an analysis and discovered that the magnificent 20.84 carat padparadscha (pictured above left) that sold last year at Christies falls outside the parameters as defined by the chart adopted by the LMHC.

Stay tuned…

Siberian Amethyst, Debunking Another Myth of the Gem Trade.

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by Richard W. Wise, G.G.

A lovely example of Zambian amethyst, note the red flashes at 6 and 12:00 oclock. The alternating zones of purple and blue deliver a particularly velvety color

Quartz is as common as dirt. At 12% it is the most abundant mineral in the earth’s crust and the primary component of ordinary dust. Quartz is extremely stable and unlike other mineral components of the earth’s upper layer does not easily break down.

Amethyst is purple quartz, but despite the relative abundance of the mineral, exceptional fine rich purple amethyst, commonly called Siberian or deep Siberian color is extremely rare. In Medieval times, there were two distinct varieties of gemstones bore the name. t Oriental amethyst, was actually purple sapphire and Occidental amethyst, the quartz gem that bears the name today. Amethyst has seesawed in value over the centuries, today the finest of the fine might command $100 per carat at a high end jewelry store, in 1652, Nicols declared it to be of equal value to a diamond of the same weight.

I am not sure where the term Siberian originated and exactly how it became associated with the finest color in amethyst. The usual reason why a specific locality gives its name to the finest quality of a given gemstones, (Kashmir sapphire, Burma ruby and Paraiba tourmaline) is because the region is known to produce a particularly fine quality. This is not the case with “Siberian” amethyst. The fact is that for the past two centuries, the finest amethyst has come from Ceylon and Brazil (Streeter 1879)

Siberian amethyst is found in the Ural Mountains, with deposits outside the town of Mursinsk near the city of Ekaterinburg. Amethyst has been mined in this area since at least the 18th century and probably earlier. Sampling amethyst from mines active in this area in the 1830s, Gustav Rose, geologist with the famous Humboldt expedition (1837-1842) makes the following comment. “The Mursinsk amethyst at times is very dark violet-blue surpassing that from Ceylon but mostly it is pale violet-blue (purple) or spotted and striped (zoned).” John Sinkankas, who edited Rose’s text, calls this a “refreshing reappraisal” of Siberian amethyst and points out that Rose apparently held amethyst from Ceylon in the highest regard. In 1900, the great German gemologist Dr. Max Bauer make the identical point adding only Brazil as a source of the finest examples of amethyst. It is important to note that both these celebrated experts were able to view samples from actual working mines. Other writers (Farrington 1903) identify Siberia as a major source for amethyst in the U. S. but this is contradicted by Streeter, Kunz and G-H Herbert Smith, whose popular Gem-Stones was, perhaps the most popular general book on gemstones in the 20th Century went through 14 separate editions between 1913-1972.

Up until the 1990s the primary world source for amethyst were the Brazilian mines at Pau d’Arco, Rio Grande do Sul and Marabá. (Epstein 1988). Pau d’Arco located in the Brazilian state of Para was discovered in 1979 and was known to produce a rich sometimes over saturated purple, which often exhibited the much desired red flash in incandescent light. The other two sources produced a lighter brighter hued gem. This writer saw large parcels of amethyst, often hundreds of carats, from all these sources available for sale in the gem market at Teofilo Otoni during this period.

In the 1950s a new location of exceptionally fine gem material was located in Zambia in a 15 x 30 km belt, trending northwest in the Mwakambiko hills of the Mapatizya area of Zambia. This material, a medium dark royal purple has become famous for its dark blue zones which add a velvety “royal” quality to the face up color much as a bit of purple does in the higher qualities of sapphire. If one deposit were to be identified as the acme of amethyst it would be this one.

I was first introduced to the rough material in 1990. Much of it was being smuggled into Nairobi, Kenya. I had a good chance to examine the rough at that time and purchased several kilos. The rough was a uniform deep purple of 80-85% tone with deep blue zones running through it. Cut into gems it faced up with rich velvety slightly bluish purple and in incandescent light, the diagnostic red flashes and occasionally almost blue flashes of scintillation that are the hallmark of deep Siberian quality. Mining activity continues in Zambia but the major strike of exceptional material was mined out in the mid 1990s and a few gems cut from old rough are occasionally seen in the market.

Online Gem Sale

Bangkok Soujourn Part I

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Bangkok's Chao Prya River

by Richard W. Wise, G.G.

Arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday. We had only a week and a day between returning home from Tucson and leaving again for Asia. I had agreed to give a talk at the 34th GIA Gathering on the 24th. Lecturing on jetlag. I don’t recommend it. Still our timing was good, two days after we left, the northeast was slammed with 18″ of snow.

The Gathering, hosted by Ken Scarrett, was well organized with about 100 people in attendance, good food, good wine and good talk and all books sold. It was great seeing old friends like Mark Smith, Richard Hughes and Gay and Joe Belmont. GIA has established a school here with hundreds of students coming from all over the world to study gemology in Bangkok, the colored gemstone capital of the world. It is particularly gratifying to meet and talk to this new generation of students. I find myself in awe, they come from such an interesting variety of places and backgrounds.

Ruby; The End of Burma?

Ruby production at Mong Hsu and Mogok has shut down. Production from Mogok has for years been little more than a trickle and now it appears that the “new mines” at Mong Hsu are at an end of their productive years. At any rate, according to a number of sources, both mining areas are now effectively closed.

There are few Burma rubies of any quality to be found in the Bangkok market. In many ways this resembles the situation in the late 1980s when Burma stones did not exist in the market and all that was available was mined in Thailand. Today the Thai deposits are mined out and Africa is ruby’s new hope! Compared with Mogok, a valley 20 miles long, the vast geology of East Africa’s Mozambique belt, a geologic formation stretching from from Ethiopia in the north all the way to Zanzibar possesses the greatest potential for gem production in the 21st Century.

We have had the opportunity to see a number of the newer rubies from Mozambique and Tanzania including a 16 carat piece of flattish alluvial rough from Mozambique that will likely cut an 8+ carat stone. In some cases, the color is quite marvelous, resembling the pure scarlet hues of the best of the old Thai gems.

: Very fine old Thai ruby with orange secondary hue. Some connoisseurs consider that the slight orange frames and adds saturation to the overall color. Courtesy: Richard W. Hughes:

The hue itself was often of a purer red than stones from Burma though the high iron content added a murkiness—sometimes adding an orangy secondary hue or a brownish mask that was not attractive. Both the Mozambique and Tanzanian material while geologically similar and iron bearing have measurably less iron in their composition and thus a higher degree of transparency. Much of the Mozambique resembles the old pinkish Lai Thai material that superficially resembles some Burmese. Due to the iron, the African material lacks the highly saturated ultraviolet punch of the best of Burma, though the best material is exceptionally beautiful in its own right.

More later, stay tuned!

Color-change Garnet from Kenya

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Mgama Ridge: Probably the source of the alluvial garnets found in the plain below. Photo Raja Shah, Color First

As Raja Shah tells us, it is a story typical of gem strikes from the plains of Kenya to the Australian outback. While digging an outdoor privy, a ranch hand working in the gem rich region of Taita Tavita happened upon some unusual looking stones just a few feet under the surface and showed them to a local gem dealer.

Garnet Mining: Photo: Raja Shah, Color First

Late last November I received an email from a budding young gem dealer living in Voi, a town near Tsavo National Park, half way between Nairobi and Mombasa. He had a copy of my book Secrets and wanted to order more. Further he wrote excitedly of a find of Alexandrite somewhere nearby. “It looks just like the picture in your book.” Well, sometimes where there is smoke, there can be fire.

Once the word got out, thousands of independent miners descended on the area and began excavating private land and even a section of adjacent road where according to Shah a number of fine stones were located. The material is alluvial and appears to be spread out along a just south of Mgama Ridge (pictured above left)

1.83 carat color-change garnet sporting its daytime color

The strike turned out to be color change garnet, the best of which is similar to a find in the late 90s near the village of Bekily in southern Madagascar. Small amounts of color change garnet of this description has been showing up in East Africa for years. The first example I saw was in Kenya in early 1995. A Nairobi dealer had a 1/2 carat oval that bore an uncanny resemblance to Brazilian Alexandrite—the same teal blue peacock color that the Brazilian garimpeiros call peacock blue or pavão.

The same stone by night

Color change garnets have been found previously in Umba and Tunduru, Tanzania and in Embilipitiya and Athiliwewa, Sri Lanka and most recently on the island of Madagascar, in the southern part of the island near the village of Bekily.

Although some of the garnets from the aforementioned location do have the much desired “Alexandrite like” color change, it was the discovery of the Madagascar location that brought reasonably large amounts of alexandrite like garnet into the marketplace.

The range of color in garnet rough material from the new Kenya strike. All photos courtesy of Raja Shah, ColorFirst

According to Shah, the material comes in a range of hues with a predomince of brownish stones, only about 5% of the material has the most desired red/purple to teal blue change and only about 5% of that material is suitable for faceting.

The Madagascar material has been described as pyrope-spessartite with small percentages of almandine and grossular. This description is not particularly useful, relying as it does on a classification system that has been out of date for years. Apparently the garnet for the new Kenyan strike, described as pyrope-spessartite with grossular, is chemically similar. Again, like the Madagacar material, the color change is most likely associated with Chromium/Vanadium.

Investing in Gemstones, Part II; A Strategy:

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Avoiding the Con:

There were a number of phony gemstone investment schemes in operation during the hard asset investment craze of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Until Congress put a stop to it, investors were purchasing, gems, antiques and Shaker rocking chairs as part of their IRA portfolios.

To avoid prosecution many gem investment scammers set up boiler room operations in Canada, but sold mostly to gullible U. S. investors. The pitch was simple and ingenious. To keep buyers from seeking an outside appraisal, the gems arrived in sealed packets with a microfilmed “certificate of authenticity”. Buyers were warned that breaking the seal would invalidate the certificate and negate affect potential resale.

Over the years, several victims have sought me out to appraise their purchases. In all cases, the gems were wildly overpriced stones and of a quality best described as Continue reading →

Investing In Gemstones, Part I: The Market

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Bye, Bye Bling:

Perhaps it’s the tenor of the times. Increasingly I find myself fielding questions about gems as an investment. With government printing presses working 24/7, many people are concerned that deficit spending, coupled with Government stimulation of the credit markets in the U. S., Europe, China and Japan, will eventually lead to hyperinflation. With stocks, bonds and real estate in the tank and currencies at risk, people are thrashing about looking to find a safe financial haven. In uncertain times, investors turn increasingly to hard assets. Luxury per se is out, but investment is definitely in. (pictured above left a 1.01 vivid pink diamond from the 2008 Argyle tender)

The Problem:

Stocks and bonds trade in an orderly market. One share of General Electric common stock is just like another. Stock Exchanges guarantee that their members can trade stocks at the going price anytime the exchange is open. This gives stocks the advantage of liquidity. Stocks and bonds trade at established prices and these prices are Continue reading →