Gemstones of the Bible !

With the Christmas Season upon us, an interesting topic concerning gemstones is a look at which gemstones are mentioned in the Bible.
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In the old Testament in Exodus, Chapter 28, we find:
a Sardius, a Topaz, a Carbuncle, an Emerald, a Sapphire, a Diamond, a Ligure, an Agate, an Amethyst, a Beryl, an Onyx, and a Jasper.
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Then in the New Testament, in Revelations are listed:
a Jasper, a Sapphire, a Chalcedony, an Emerald, a Sardonyx, a Sardius, a Chrysolite, a Beryl, a Topaz, a Chrysoprase, a Jacinth and an Amethyst.
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In both cases, the number of Gemstones listed is 12. And then within the Gosples we have the 12 gemstones associated with of the Apostles;
Peter: Jasper, Andrew: Garnet, James and John: Emerald, Philip: Carnelian, Bartholomew: Chrysolite, Thomas: Beryl, Matthew: Topaz, James: Sardonyx, Thaddeus: Chrysoprase, Simeon: Jacinth, Matthew: Amethyst, Paul: Sapphire and Judas was one of the original 12 Apostle's, however no gemstone is known to be associated with his name.

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So if we look closely, in each case the following are named:
A Jasper, a Topaz, an Emerald, a Beryl, an Amethyst, a Sapphire and an Onyx or Sardonyx. We also have the gemstone called a Sardius, which today is referred to as a Carnelian, also the gemstone called Carbuncle, which we know today as a red Garnet, and then the gemstone Jacinth, or as we call it today, the red Zircon. That leaves only the Diamond and Ligure listed in Exodus, but they are replaced with Chrysolite and Chrysoprase in The Gosples and Revelations. Ligure is possibly thought to relate or refer to Amber. And then in Revelations, a new gemstone is named – Chalcedony. So in totality, we have 15 unique gemstones mentioned throughout the Bible, but only 12 are ever listed together in any single reference.

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It's an Oily Frog !

Let's have a fun look at some of the more unusual gems and minerals that can be found in our world!

At the International School of Gemology (ISG) study is done on specimens rather than by pictures from a textbook. This allows the students to learn more about all of the variables that gemstone properties can offer, rather than teaching a simple listing out of a textbook. To do this the ISG has collected as many gems and mineral specimens as can be found, bought, begged, borrowed or get donated.

Occasionally the finds are just so unique that they sort of defy explanation. And with so many students and friends in so many places world wide, the ISG has assembled one of the most unique collections of weird and unusual gems and minerals that you will find anywhere. This particular stone was donated by Trent at BKK Gemstones, Thailand.

This is a piece of Enhydro Quartz.

The fact that quartz crystals often form in hydrothermal intrusions into existing rock makes it no surprise that there are a lot of weird inclusions to be found in most quartz crystals. But few are stranger than finding Light Sweet Crude Oil inside a quartz crystal. But that is exactly what we have below. This is an enhydro quartz crystal that actually contains far more than first meets the eye. Let’s look at just a few of the unusual features in this particular specimen.

If you look below you see a fairly large pocket of petroleum inside this quartz crystal. This occurred due to the petroleum existing in the hydrothermal intrusion where the quartz crystal formed. As the hot water environment started to cool and the quartz crystal began to grow, the petroleum that was in the hot water was simply engulfed inside the crystal as it grew, leaving pockets of petroleum with gas bubbles inside the cavities of the quartz crystal. But here is where it starts getting weird.

Below you see a formation that has a lot going on with it. Not only do you have a spike looking formation of light and dark petroleum, you also have a lot of twinned crystals. Twinning is when two or more crystals grow in the same dimensional space. In other words, the molecules of the quartz are so tiny and far apart that you can actually have two or more quartz crystals growing within the same place, inside each other. This is what you see below with the many points sticking up to the left of the oil spike. These are simply a whole row of tiny petroleum filled quartz crystals that have all grown inside the larger host crystal. It is actually possible to have scores of crystals growing inside each other due to twinning.

Sometimes these twinned crystals are not full formations, but are sort of ghosts of crystals. What we appropriately call phantoms. A phantom crystal is one that is actually present, but you don’t really see the complete formation because it’s sort of a….well, a phantom. At left you see a phantom crystal that is partially visible due to a cavity that contains water. This water is millions of years old and was inside this phantom crystal when the larger host crystal simply engulfed it during formation. Sort of a "now you see me, now you don’t," looking formation.

But here is where it really gets fun! Below you see a 10x image of this crystal photographed from one very special direction. You can see the blue and yellow colors of the petroleum filled cavities inside the crystal. But WAIT!

What is that? Is that a FROG? An OILY FROG? It sure looks like it !

One of the most fun aspects of crystal study is just how weird some of the inclusions can be. And just how many people can see images in the inclusions….sort of like seeing shapes in the clouds in the sky. In imaging what this crystal looks like, this frog jumped out like a……well, a frog! No, no, no. It’s not a real frog. Just a really frog looking petroleum filled cavity.

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If one gets a chance to go to the Tucson GemFair, these are also the kinds of unique items that sometimes pop out at you as you look through the thousands of rocks, stones, gemstones and minerals that are for sale all over Tucson.

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Thanks to the ISG for pictures and information on this quartz.
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WARNING - Jewelry Repair Nightmare

In helping a customer with a problem, I just found out that what I thought was a unique and very rare occurance or possibly a home fix, apparently is somewhat more common place than I would have ever thought. So be careful when taking your jewelry in for repair, especially faceted gemstones in settings with prongs. It has come to my attention that some unscrupulous persons calling themselves 'jewelers' that when they repair jewelry where the stones are loose in their mounting in rings, pendants or earrings are 'super gluing' the stones into the mounts rather than repairing/replacing the prongs or suggesting new settings to their customers.

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There is no question that good reputable "Jewelers" do not partake in such practices and thus why one should deal with known and well referred "jewelers" when having, especially costly or vintage family heirloom pieces cleaned, repaired or remounted.

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Depending on which gemstone is mounted in a setting that has been 'super-glued' it is probably removable, but stone condition could be altered considerably. There is probably no question that the mounting will be destroyed in the process. Sometimes if the stones are lightly damaged, repolishing will make the stone usable again. To the naked eye, super-gluing is hard to detect and appears as 'dirt or gunk' on the underside of the gemstone next to the prongs. Under 'UV Light' this 'gunk' will glow slightly bluish if the stone is transparent or clear.

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This all goes back to the old saying "Know who you are dealing with when value or heritage is involved." I was totally surprised when advised recently that 'super-gluing' is not a unique repair process and is becoming seen more and more often by reputable jewelry repair persons.

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Ignorance Factor and London Blue Topaz

Different shades of blue topaz.

Chart courtesy of Helmut Zimmerman/BCS Group.

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A year ago, when the NRC decided to enforce its long-ignored health and safety regulations for irradiated London Blue Topaz, most retailers stopped selling this very popular gem until licensed testing facilities could be opened. Now six facilities are open—and no one seems to be using them. Why?

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Blue topaz comes in basically three shades: Sky Blue, Swiss Blue and London or Denim Blue. There are some who also recognize a fourth blue called Super Sky Blue. All come from radiating the natural Clear or White Topaz. And then for those that have the available cash, there is a very rare natural Blue Topaz, which is very rarely seen. Forgetting the natural Blue Topaz, the lighter shades of blue have the lowest levels of radiation, while the London Blue takes at least 18 months for the radiation to drop to the safety standard set by the Nuclear Regulatory Committee (NRC). However, with time, even London Blue Topaz is quite safe. Nevertheless, an informal survey of several southern California jewelry chains and jewelry departments in major stores and visits to jewelry stores in Texas showed that while all the stores carried some Sky and Swiss Blue Topaz jewelry, only a couple carried any of the dark London Blue Topaz.. When asked about it, of the clerks who know about teh irradiation to color, most of the sales clerks would comment “You used to see that dark blue stuff all the time. Now no one has it.”

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Clearly the decision to cease stocking London Blue Topaz came from outside the stores visited. If fact, the majority of salespeople had no idea what type of treatment had been used on the Topaz stones to make them blue, many thought all Blue Topaz was natural. What’s more, most were oblivious to the NRC regulations. Of the few salespeople who were aware of the NRC regulations, all but one erroneously believed the regulations stemmed from widespread problems with “dangerous levels of radiation.”

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Given such confusion and ignorance about Blue Topaz among jewelry store staffers, it’s easy to see why people cite so many different reasons for the drop-off in sales of this lovely gem. Sadly, the decline didn’t have to happen if people in the jewelry industry would become familiar with processes and treatments associated with gemstones. Maybe the moral here is an old one: The jewelry industry has nothing to fear but fear itself.

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In the mean time fear could spread. After all, Blue Topaz is not the only gemstone to be regularly irradiated. Yellow Beryl, Smoky Quartz, Pink Tourmaline, some colored Diamonds and others are also enhanced in this manner. If disclosure of this basic truth becomes as hard to swallow with other gems, London Blue Topaz could just be the first of many gem casualties in a market that lives in needless, somewhat hypocritical fear of the facts about the products it sells. So in the end, if you like Blue, the Blue Topaz gemstones are still a great favorite and wearing them hasn't shown to be of any problem. For those dealers who know and explain the facts to their customers about Blue Topaz, the problems have not kept anyone from purchasing them.

Information from various medical authorities indicate that even with a necklace containing as many London Blue Topaz as shown, the wearer would have to wear it 24 hours a day for many many years and they still would not receive as much radiation as one can obtain on a beach in the full sun.

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Partial reprint of articles in Colored Stone Magazine, AGTA and ISG news releases.

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Another Find at the Arkansas Diamond Fields !

It's happened again, another big find at Arkansas' Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro. Rhonda Bankston from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, saw a segment about the park on The Travel Channel’s “The Best Places to Find Cash and Treasures.” So, she and a friend decided to head out to camp at the park and give diamond hunting there a try.

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On Sunday, around 11:00 a.m. on her second day of prospecting in the park’s 37 ½-acre search area, Bankston found a stunning, what appears to be flawless 2.09-carat white diamond as she was surface searching over the plowed field. The field is the eroded surface of the world’s eighth largest diamond-bearing deposit in surface area. She found the gem near a sign that marks the spot where the 40.23-carat Uncle Sam diamond, the largest diamond ever unearthed in the U.S., was found back in 1924. After her gem is appraised, Bankston will decide whether to keep the diamond or sell it. Shaped somewhat like, and about the size of, a tooth, her sparkling white diamond looks like a frosted ice cube.

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Crater of Diamonds State Park is the world’s only diamond-producing site open to the public. Diamonds come in all colors of the rainbow. The three most common colors found at the park are white, brown and yellow, in that order. The park staff provides free identification and certification of diamonds. Park interpretive programs and exhibits explain the site’s geology and history and offer tips on recognizing diamonds in the rough. In total, over 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed at Arkansas’s diamond site since the first diamonds found in 1906 by John Huddleston, the farmer who at that time owned the land, long before the site became an Arkansas state park. The largest diamond ever discovered in the United States was unearthed here in 1924 during an early mining operation. Named the Uncle Sam, this white diamond with a pink cast weighed 40.23 carats. Other semi-precious gems and minerals found at the Crater of Diamonds include amethyst, garnet, peridot, jasper, agate, calcite, barite and quartz. Over 40 different rocks and minerals are unearthed at the Crater making it a rock hound's delight.

A fairly nice .24 ct yellow Diamond found at the Arkansas Diamond Mines.

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Crater of Diamonds State Park is located two miles southeast of Murfreesboro. It is one of the 52 state parks administered by the State Parks Division of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.

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The above two rocks, when located, tell you that you may be in Diamond Fields. Lamproite, on the left, contains small Diamond flecks but when associated closely to deposites of Kimberlite, on the right, in the same field, chances of larger Diamond finds are possible. Both of the above pieces were acquired by this writer during a visit to the same Arkansas Diamond Fields as the newest find. Sadly no Diamonds were found during that visit.

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Parts of this article from announcement by KARK Chnl 4 News

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Holiday Season Gems - Frankincense and Myrrh !

Items straight out of the Christmas Story and the Bible. Although the actual story in the Bible was written many years later, the fact that Frankincense and Myrrh were probable gifts is hard to deny in that area of the world. The picture above is of Frankincense (top) and Myrrh (bottom) directly out of the Middle East.
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Frankincense is tapped from the very scraggly but hardy Boswellia tree through scraping the bark and allowing the exuded resins to bleed out and harden. These hardened resins are called tears. There are numerous species and varieties of frankincense trees, each producing a slightly different type of resin. Differences in soil and climate create even more diversity in the resin, even within the same species.
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Myrrh is a reddish-brown resinous material, the dried sap of the tree Commiphora myrrha, native to Yemen. H igh quality myrrh can be identified through the darkness and clarity of the resin. However, the best method of judging the resin's quality is by feeling the stickiness of freshly broken fragments directly to determine the fragrant-oil content of the myrrh resin. Many times Myhrr appears as a powder with small chunks included.
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The following pictures are of Myrrh and Frankincense as seen in the Market Places in Yemen. Neither of these items, because of their crumbly nature, would make into gemstone jewelry for wear, but many incase either substance in small bottles or silver pouches, and wear on necklaces and earrings.


Myrrh powder and chunks................... Frankincense chunks
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JEWELRY HASN'T CHANGED IN 2000 YEARS !

This photo made available by the Israeli Antiquities Authority on Monday, Nov. 10, 2008 shows what archaeologists say is a 2,000-year-old gold earring discovered beneath a parking lot next to the walls of Jerusalem's old city. The Israel Antiquities Authority says the earring is inlaid with pearls and emeralds and was made around the time of Christ, between the first century B.C. and the beginning of the fourth century A.D. "It must have belonged to someone of the elite in Jerusalem," Ben-Ami said. "Such a precious item, it couldn't be one of just ordinary people." Archaeologist Shimon Gibson, who was not involved in the dig, said the find was truly amazing, less because of its Roman origins than for its precious nature. "Jewelry is hardly preserved in archaeological context in Jerusalem," he said, because precious metals were often sold or melted down during the many historic takeovers of the city. "It adds to the visual history of Jerusalem," Gibson added, saying it brings attention to the life of women in antiquity. Ben-Ami said the piece's placement in the destroyed building protected it from looters and kept it preserved. Its location also showed that it must be older than the house itself. (AP Photo/IAA, HO and IGS Newsletter)

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Fall & Holiday Colors - For Long Seasonal Wear !

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The colors of Fall, Thanksgiving and the Christmas Season all come together to provide for Jewelry Sets that can be worn for an extended period of time and still be in Season the whole time. Rainbow Jade, Carnelian, Red Jasper, Poppy Jasper and California Green Opal along with Black Onyx fill this requirement very nicely.