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a nice Herkimer
900 × 675 - 146k - jpggeology.comI regularly have people come into our store and talk about the great deal they got on Herkimer diamonds or some other special named diamond. It is a shame that some dealers or individuals try to take advantage of someone by telling them they are buying a diamond I hope this article will help people understand a little bit about stones that are referred to as diamonds but are not.
Diamond Wrongs
by Dr. Bill Cordua, St. Croix Rockhounds From: St. Croix Rockhound's Leaverite News, 5108 (6111 Place -AFMS Original Adult Articles Advanced)Recently a student of mine, who had been looking for a gift for his girlfriend, asked me if Herkimer "diamonds" were particularly good diamonds. After explaining to him that Herkimer "diamonds" were really quartz, I began thinking about all the things rockhounds and jewelers call diamonds that are really diamond- wrongs. Sometimes this is an innocent practice (as in Herkimer "diamonds"), but it can be meant to mislead shoppers. In all cases it creates confusion and is sloppy nomenclature. Here are some of the diamond "wrongs" I have found online and what they REALL y are. Caveat emptor! Herkimer diamonds are quartz crystals found in vugs in dolostone in central New York. They are often sharply terminated, water clear, and sparkly against the gray dolostone or black bitumen matrix, but they aren't diamonds. Little Falls "diamonds" and Middleville "diamonds" are synonyms, named after several towns in the collecting area -obfuscation taken to the second level of confusion. "
Other clear quartz rock crystals that have been called diamonds are Alencon "diamonds," Cape
May "diamonds" Hawaiian "diamonds", Pecos "diamonds”, Colorado "diamonds" can refer to smoky quartz. Herradura "diamonds," Mexican "diamonds," and on and on.I had heard of Cape May "diamonds" when I was a kid. They refer to rounded pebbles of clear to white quartz picked up along the beaches around Cape May, New Jersey. Their source was the crystalline rocks in the upper reaches of the Delaware River. River and wave transport have rounded and sculpted them, making them popular among east coast beachcombers.
Pecos "diamonds" come from outcrops along the Pecos River in southeastern New Mexico, not far from Roswell. They often have a unique orange color and are associated with cavities in gypsum- bearing limestone and dolostone. But, pretty as these are, they aren't diamonds.
Radium "diamond" is also smoky quartz. Since quartz can be made smoky artificially by exposure to radiation, some of these specimens may not only be misnamed but also faked.
Alaskan "diamond" is similarly a type of quartz rock crystal, unless you find Alaskan "black diamond," which is polished hematite. Yes, it sparkles, but iron oxide is hardly the same as pure carbon. The Russians taught the native Aleuts how to cut and polish this material, which was highly thought of enough to serve as royal gifts. These are beautiful enough in their own right that one wonders what was necessary to give it a gaudy name. In addition, there is a Nevada "black diamond," but that is obsidian, a volcanic glass. Of course there is a real black diamond -a bizarre form also called carbonado, which may be extraterrestrial in origin.
Matura "diamond" refers to colorless zircon, which is found in the gem gravels of Sri Lanka. Zircon does have a adamantine luster, so clear varieties tend to resemble diamonds in their brilliance. However, they do have inferior hardness and are zirconium silicate, not carbon. Be also aware the zircon is not the same as cubic zirconium, an artificial product often used as an inexpensive diamond substitute.
Mogok "diamond," Saxon "diamond," Killicrankie "diamond," and Flinder's "diamond" are white topaz. Killiecrankie is on Flinder's Island off Tasmania, so the last three terms refer to the same thing. These are topaz from granite that have been worn loose and turn up in beach gravels. Topaz is a had, lustrous mineral to be sure, but these rank on an 8 on the Mohs scale -not 10 -and are not as rare. They also lack the brilliance of diamond's luster.
Here are some good online references about misleading mineral names:
httD:llwww .aemscaDe .com/html/misnomer .htm httR :llwww .iewelinfo4u .com/bewareofmisleadinggems tonenames.aspxfrom :Strata Gem 3110 via Bulletin of the Mineralogical Society of Southern California 1110
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quamarine
Namibia: 'Gem War' Breaks Out in Erongo Mountains
Mohs scale hardness: 7.5-8
The counterfeit of emeralds are aquamarines. Aquamarine, meaning "water of the sea" is a birthstones for the month of March (along with bloodstone and jasper).
Most Aquamarines have pale blue color but deeper blue hue of aquamarines are actually more valuable. Aquamarine is used very much in high quality jewelry.
In my state of Colorado there have been many beautiful aquamarine crystals collected on top of mount Antero high above timber line. You need to be in good shape and have good lungs to be able to do the hard work required at the high altitude where the crystals are found.
Mount Antero is located just south west of Buena Vista Colorado. There are also many other popular stones collected in the Buena Vista area.
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February birthstone: Amethyst
Originally mined in the Ural Mountains in Russia, this beautiful reddish purple stone was traded throughout Europe. Found in excavated grave sites the amethyst crystal was collected and treasured by many different tribes for its mystical qualities. The oldest crystal object found dates to 7500 B.C. in the areas of France, Switzerland and Spain. Egyptian amethyst beads and amulets were discovered in tombs and dates to 3100 B.C. More -
montanakids.com/facts_and_figures/state_symbo.THE STORY OF MONTANA AGATE
It has always been a mystery how the peculiar little scenes got inside a rock as hard as agate. It is the claim of geologists that the spots were caused by infinitely minute seams or fissures in the softer parts of the rock being filled with metallic oxides when the world was young. These oxides created four different colors that form various combinations of color when blended together, or appear in single colors in each rock.
The red color is oxide of iron. The black is oxide of manganese. The green is oxide of copper. The blue is oxide of nickel. This theory has been elaborated upon by the help of high powered microscopes which show the tracings of little canals to tiny that the naked eye could not detect them, but the oxides remained-staining the rocks in wonderful designs. The fern-like and branch effects of the trees, grass, and shrubbery come from the fact that the tiny canals branched out in various subdivisions forming smaller canals from a common center- In addition to these canals, the rock became flawed through shrinkage while passing through a period of evaporation, which, according to scientists, has taken more than three million years to reduce the stone to the hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale.
These canals and flaws have been perfectly healed by soft silicate formations of which the stone is a part, and the evaporation has caused the oxides to take on such forms as seen on the window after a frosty night. Technically , Montana Agate is known as "dendritic" agate and the moss spots are called "dentrites". It is the third hardest stone in the world and is cut only with a diamond saw. There can never be two pieces alike even though cut from the same stone.
From- The Roadrunner News 02/06 via Osage Hills Gems
There have been many pieces of beautiful jewelry made from Montana agates.
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