News

Many people may think that they would not recognize a beryl, but the fact is that beryl is a crystal that has several more well-known forms. Emeralds and Aquamarines are examples of more well-known beryl crystals. Emeralds are dark green, aquamarine is the colour of the sea and there is also a red beryl known as bixbite.

As far as we know, the first emeralds were mined near the Red Sea in Egypt at Cleopatra’s Mines. This name was adopted later as the mines were first productive 2,000 years before Cleopatra was born. It is considered that the secret location of the mine was lost and only rediscovered in 1818.

It is imagined that most of the emeralds used in the ancient Middle East and Europe came from these mines. The Cleopatra Mines have apparently been exhausted of high quality emeralds and are not mined any more. Columbia and Russia are the primary sources of emeralds these days

Australia and South Africa are also serious sources of emeralds. There are ten or so other sources of emeralds around the world, but they tend to be small or of low quality and of virtually no commercial value.

As mentioned above, beryls come in various colours under different names. In fact, the colours vary from peach to lavender, besides the more precious greens and greeny-blues. The beryl that is most used in these other colours is morganite, which may vary from peach to lavender.

Morganite is not a valuable-sounding gem, so deceitful traders have tried to rebrand it as ‘Pink Emerald’ or ‘Pink Aquamarine’. Do not be fooled by these half-truths.

Morganite was first discovered in California, but there are also significant build-ups of it in Africa, Brazil and Russia. In spite of its poor status and lack of perceived value, morganite is quite scarce, which makes it a worthwhile present.

A different beryl crystal of a beautiful hue is heliodor, which means ‘gift of the sun’ due to its beautiful, golden, sun-like colour. Heliodor was not found until 1910 and was discovered close to a deposit of aquamarine in Namibia.

Since then, lodes of heliodor have been found in Brazil and Madagascar. The largest crystal of heliodor lies in the Hall of Gems at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC. It weighs in at 2,054 carats or 410.8 grammes (just over 14 ounces). It is faceted and so has been cut.

Two of the rarest variations of beryl are only to be found in America. Red beryl is discovered in the Wah Wah Mountains of Utah, but the stones are tiny and normally flawed with inclusions. Nevertheless, red beryl is a beautiful deep shade of red.

There is also a colourless, clear beryl called Goshenite, because it is only found in Goshen, Massachusetts. However, it must have been found elsewhere in the Ancient World, because it is considered that the Ancients used clear beryl for lenses.

The first glasses were probably also made out of polished clear beryl.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a number of subjects, but is now concerned with baby birthstones. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Jewellry but Watches.