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Alexandrite Crystal Specimen #4

Regular price £399.99
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Description

This extremely rare natural Alexandrite comes from Zimbabwe shows crystal faces, and displays a noticeable change from green to red in tungsten lighting. You will receive the exact crystal pictured, shown under both normal lighting, and with a tungsten torch to show the red.

Size: 18mm x 16mm

Alexandrite is a even rarer variety of the already rare Chrysoberyl, which despite it’s name is not related at all to the Beryl family (which contains Emerald, Aquamarine, Morganite, etc). It was first discovered in the Ural Emerald mines in 1830 in Russia, and named after the heir to the throne, Alexander II.

It is extremely unusual in that it will appear green-blue in natural daylight, but under incandescent light it may show a colour change to red. To see this colour change best, it is important to use a traditional tungsten (or similar) filament bulb or a candle, NOT an LED bulb. This colour change is believed to be due to the chromium in the Alexandrite absorbing different wavelengths of light.

Almost all Alexandrite seen on the market in jewellery is synthetic/manmade, as natural gem grade Alexandrite is very scarce and expensive. However the synthetic version is also expensive to produce, and a synthetic colour shift lilac/purple to blue grey variety of Corundum (Sapphire) is often sold as natural Alexandrite instead.

Although Alexandrite was originally discovered in Russia, it has also been found since in small amounts in Brazil, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
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