Spessartine Garnet (Mandarin Garnet)

Item Description

The famous quote from John Sinkankas was "gems are minerals after all". In our continued efforts to promote the importance of gemstones for ALL collectors, we want to give mineral collectors a chance at a rare cut stone that complements a choice mineral specimen from a classic locality. Some of the finest mineral collections in the world are accompanied by gemstones that either complete a "rough and cut" set for certain specimens, or simply show the beauty of particular species when they are faceted. We are offering this stone as an opportunity for collectors to expand their horizons and purchase gemstones that would supplement crystallized specimens in their collections. I think it is important for collectors to know that faceted stones can expand one's interests in minerals and can add a certain reverence to the hobby of collecting minerals. In the gem world, Garnet comes in every color of the rainbow except blue. Some of the best orange Garnets in the world are those from the Nigerian gem fields. Only recently have these new Spessartine Garnet gems hit the market and they are some of the most popular and hard to find gems around! The immediatley were recognized as being some of the best orange color Garnet ever found, and it seems that the deposit has been mined out almost as fast as it was discovered! This stone is a good quality, saturated, nearly eye clean, strong orange color gemstone with an "Oval" cut. This material is almost totally pure in Manganese and has very little Iron content, which is why the stone is so orange and not red. This gem could be called what is being marketed as "Mandarin Garnet", because of the intense orange color. This intense orange color is nearly exclusive to these Garnet gems and that is why it has become so popular and in some cases very pricey. Believe it or not, while flipping through the channels, I saw a company on televsion selling material with the same color as this stone for $1,800 per carat! I'm not kidding, and people were buying it! Don't get burned like those people did, and snag this stone at a great price. It seems as though this material has really dried up in recent years, and very little is available on the market, so don't miss out.