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Gems
The Real Star!
In 1001 Arabian Nights, Sinbad tips off his master that the best gems are found in Serendib, as Arabs then called Sri Lanka . And he hadn't even stumbled upon the Star of India, a slip of the tongue if ever there was one! This world famous sapphire in the possession of The Queen is actually a Sri Lankan gem mined in a village near Ratnapura. If you are being Queen for the day, and hunting for the best stones they are:
Aquamarine - often overpriced.
Alexandrite - One of the rarest gems in the world. Green in daylight but red as a raspberry in electric light.
Blue Topaz - any blues are usually irradiated abroad using local white topaz!
Chrysoberyl - look out for low quality cats eyes from India; Best Lankan stones are green/yellow or green colours. Browns are rare.
Cats Eye - honey coloured usually, but comes in many colours; the silky flash which crosses the gem looks like the gleam from a cats eye and is named.
Chatoyancy - derived from the French word chat.
Garnet - found in all colours apart from blue. Most popular is ‘fiery garnet’ or pyrope; large good stones available.
Quartz - rose, yellow or Smokey.
Ruby - good value with a stone of 3 carats for $5,000.
Spinel - search for pastel bright hues.
Sapphire - all colours but blue, orange, pink and yellow are best. Sri Lankan White sapphire is renown.
Tourmaline - brown-ish tints are the only local colours; all others are imported.
Moonstone - found in lode form and are so profuse in Sri Lanka that it would cost more to fake one.
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