Taaffeite Is A Rare Gemstone

Taaffeite is one of the rarest gemstones in the world. It was first discovered as an already cut, polished, and misidentified "spinel" in a Dublin, Ireland jewelry shop by gemologist, Richard Taaffe who bought a cluster of gems in October 1945.

Taaffe noticed some inconsistencies in his "spinel" and sent a sample of the stone off to a London lab which in 1951 verified that its main components were beryllium, magnesium, and aluminum, making the hexagon crystal a newly found mineral later named taaffeite (BeMg3Al18O16).

Unlike spinel, which is only singly refractive (like diamonds and garnets), Taaffeite is doubly refractive (it blends and reflects light in all directions). Taaffeite is a transparent gemstone with a vitreous shine (like glass in appearance or physical properties).

This beryl forms in carbonate rocks in Sri Lanka and Southern Tanzania (alongside the gemstones fluorite, mica, spinel, and tourmaline). Some poor-quality taaffeite has also been discovered in China. 

Because of its rarity, taaffeite is only used as a gemstone. Registering an 8 - 8.5 on Moh's Scale of Hardness, the jewel comes in colorless, violet red, pink violet, red, light green, and mauve. Taaffeite costs an average of $1,500 - $2,500 per carat, although top-grade taaffeite can fetch $35,000 per carat. The best quality taaffeite gets bought quickly. Pink is the rarest and most expensive color.

This beryllium-magnesium-aluminum-oxide mineral is clean of inclusions, and the red is gorgeous. Imagine ... a jewelry lover wearing it would bling all over the place!

Have you ever heard of taaffeites?

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What Gives Fancy Diamonds & Sapphires Their Colors?

A  rare blue diamond

Diamonds, the element carbon in nature, are usually thought of as clear, transparent, or white. Sapphires, corundums, or aluminum oxide, are abundantly blue in nature. Yet both precious gemstones also come in several fancy colors when trace minerals (impurities) bond within each stone's chemistry as they form over billions of years in the earth's crust. 

Have you ever wondered what gives fancy diamonds and sapphires their various colors? Since I couldn't find charts via Google searches, I created 2 charts for you below, my lovely readers, listing the mineral or impurity present in each gemstone that produces its rare color. 

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First up let's take a look at fancy diamonds --

Diamond is an allotrope (meaning it has molecular modifications) of pure Carbon

Color of Diamond	Trace Impurities or minerals causing the color
Blue	Boron
Yellow and Orange	Nitrogen The Orange weights 14.82 carats
Green	Sulfur
Purple	Has an unusually high presence of Hydrogen
Red and pink DeYoung Red Diamond	No trace elements are present. The color is caused by a distortion in the diamond's crystal lattice produced by intense heat and pressure from all directions after the stone's formation in the earth. A special configuration of molecules lets us see the stone as pink or red as light passes through it.
Black	Clouds of minute mineral inclusions such as graphite, pyrite, or hematite extend throughout the stone. In short, a black diamond is a bundle of inclusions in the stone.

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Next up is our 2nd featured gemstone fancy sapphires  --

Effy Jewelry in common blue and multi-colored sapphires

Below is our 2nd chart listing the trace minerals or impurities that give sapphires their most common and fancy colors.

Sapphire is a corundum, chemically, extremely hard aluminum oxide. Red corundum is a ruby, not a sapphire.

Color of Sapphire	Trace Impurities or minerals causing the color
Blue (the most sold)	Iron or Titanium
Green and Yellow	Iron or low-level radiation within the earth
Orange (padparadscha sapphire) The Natural Sapphire Company	A combination of chromium (red) and iron (yellow) or natural radiation
Purple and Violet	Vanadium or natural radiation
Pink	Chromium
When the corundum is red it is a ruby. All other colors of corundum except red, are sapphires.	Chromium

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Interesting fact: Red gemstones are the rarest in nature often making them the most costly. Red diamonds are extremely rare and expensive. Rubies tend to cost more than sapphires. The jewelry industry has a well-known saying about corundum, "If you're a buyer, you want to buy a sapphire, and if you're a seller you want to sell a ruby." So don't be fooled: Pink corundum is always a sapphire while red corundum is always a ruby. Take heed if a merchant is selling pink rubies!😁

What a fun Van Cleef & Arpels design with emeralds and fancy carnary yellow diamonds! We'd all be dancing if we could afford to buy it.

I hope you find my 2 charts helpful in understating what makes fancy diamonds and sapphires. Fancy is a real term in the gemology world used for the lesser-known colors of these gemstones.

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