THE BIGGEST PRECIOUS MINERALS IN THE WORLD

Let's start with the most popular, but in the end you are waiting for a very rare mineral, I am honestly about many general never heard of!

Emerald "Mogul"

September 28, 2001 in London, one of the largest auctions of the world Christie's for $ 2.2 million was sold to one of the largest emeralds - the famous " Mogul ".

On the sides of this gem weighing 217.8 carats and a height of 10 cm engraved five lines of Muslim prayer and oriental pattern in the form of flowers. On the four sides of the " Mogul "made projections to fix stone on garment or a turban.

It is believed that the " Mogul "was brought to India by the Spanish conquistadors in the XVII century. "Mogul" belonged to the Mughal dynasty and was cut during the reign of Emperor Aurangzeb, in the middle of XVII - beginning of XVIII century.

Weight 217.80 carats . Originally belonged to the emperor of the Mughal dynasty. Faceted was between 1658 and 1707. during the reign of Emperor Aurang-Zeb. On one side is engraved prayers on the other - ornaments of flowers.

Name bought one of the most beautiful and large emeralds are still kept secret.

BIGGEST Yellow Diamond "Tiffany"

Weight was cut to 287.42 carats . Mined in South Africa in 1878 and bought by a New York jeweler Charles Tiffani.Na faceted stones sits encrusted with rubies, white diamonds and yellow bird of gold and platinum. Decoration in history was put on only twice, including once Audrey Hepburn when she starred in the film "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

BIGGEST WHITE DIAMOND "Cullinan" ("Star of Africa")

The largest faceted diamond in the world His initial weight was 3026 carats , size 100x65x50 mm . Was found by chance in 1905 in South Africa and, according to experts, is a fragment of another larger crystal, which was never found. In 1907, the Transvaal government gave it to the English King Edward VII. In 1908 it was split into several pieces, of which 9 have made ​​large diamonds, 96 small and one piece of 69.5 carats was left untreated. His "fragments" are stored in the Tower of London (London). "Cullinan-I" is embedded in the scepter of King Edward VII."Cullinan-N" is inserted into the crown of the British Empire.

LARGEST RUBY

Name has not yet, but is likely to be called " King of the rubies . "Weight 440 carats . Found in Greenland. Stone has an integral structure. This means that it does not need to be sawed into several parts, and can only be to give it a perfect circular shape. now engaged in this Canadian jewelers. After finishing work ruby will weigh up to 380 carats .

Rubin, being one of the gems are very fond of jewelers, and its rich red color goes well with the color of gold.

Translated from the Latin word " ruber "translated as" red . " Only in 1800 it was found that ruby and sapphire are a variety of corundum. Prior to this call, and ruby red spinel and garnet (all three minerals also called carbuncles). Color of rubies varies as different fields, and within the same field, so judging by the ruby hue of its origin is impossible. Most precious rubies are " colored pigeon blood "- pure red with a slight purple tinge. Colouring is often unequally distributed spots or stripes. Rough stones are dull or zhirnovat shine, but faceted ruby shines almost like a diamond.

According to its hardness is second only to diamond ruby ​​(diamond), although 140 times softer than it. In rubies frequent switching. They do not constitute defects in the stone, on the other hand - talk about its natural origin.

Large rubies are rarer than comparable him largest diamonds. The largest ruby gem quality found in Burma, weighed400 carats . The most beautiful world famous rubies are " Edward Rubin "weighing 167 carats . He is kept in the British Museum of Natural History. Star-shaped ruby " Riva "- 138.7 carats , which is in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Star-shaped ruby " De Long "- 100 carats . It is stored at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Numerous rubies decorate royal regalia and vintage heirlooms. However, many of them were subsequently "exposed", being a red spinel. Among them, the " Black Prince's Ruby "in the British Crown and the" Timur Ruby , "now owned by Kuwait Sheikh Nasser Ab-Sabah.

Many precious stones taken assign magical properties. Thus, it is believed, for example, that allows the owner to be a ruby ​​in complete safety, even among enemies, rewards invulnerability, but for this stone should be worn under clothing on the body and it is advisable never to part with it. It manages amorous desires, settles disputes, corrects bad mood, relieves distress and sorrow. Rubin increases the responsibility of the person and promotes leadership aspirations, saving the owner from inferiority complexes and uncertainty. He engenders love and attraction to the great, be it science or art. About Ruby general says that he gives strength to the lion, courage and wisdom of the serpent eagle. Stone can change the color that the owner serve as a warning about the dangers, but because this skill is necessary ruby ​​long enough to watch, if only because the color does not change too much. Ruby - stone those who want to achieve more in life, and it supports in this host, if he did not have the vain conceit and understands that the great goal - the goal of happiness for others.

The bloodiest GEM "REGENT"

Stone weighing 410 carats was found in 1701 a slave in the mines of Golconda. To make a large stone with a mine, an Indian himself wound inflicted on the lower back and put a diamond in the knitting. He handed the stone English sailor, who promised him in exchange for freedom, but, lured to the ship, killed. The money received for the sale of stone Englishman, did not go to any good. Quickly squandered it, he hanged himself. Stone bought Sir Thomas Pitt, a former pirate, and at that time the governor of the fortress of St. George. Back in London, he spent several years in seclusion, without parting with a jewel for a minute. Tired of the stone as a slave, sold it to the French king. It stole from the French treasury, laying the Moscow merchant and reduce a sword in Napoleon. Now the diamond is kept in the Louvre (Paris).

THE LARGEST PEARL "ALLAH"

Though not a mineral, but let's not ignored. Diameter of pearl 238 mm , weight 6400 grams . Was found in 1934 lines on its surface resemble the convolutions of the human brain. Stored in the United States, where it was brought through Wilburn Dowell Cobb. He received it as a gift for saving the life of the first host pearls - the head of the island of Palawan in the Philippines.

Scallops clams can grow up to 1.5 m in length and reach a weight of about 250 kg . The weight of the mollusc at most 30 kg ; the rest mass of the falls on the sink. This gem was discovered bizarre pearl divers on the island Palovan the Philippines in 1934. The lines on its surface similar to the human brain gyrus. Diameter of pearls - 238 mm , weight - 12,800 carats (6400 grams). comparison, cultured pearl with a diameter 7.5 mm would weigh about 3 carats (0.6 g) . According to the "Guinness Book of Records", a laboratory gems in San Francisco appreciated gem of Allah $ 40,000,000 . Replicas of pearls on display in museums around the world.

The head of the island, a Muslim who has received a pearl in the property, he saw in her head in a turban and called the pearl of Allah. Five years later, a man named Wilburn Dowell Cobb saved his son's life chapter of the island, and the pearl he got as a gift as a token of gratitude. In 1980, the heirs of the Cobb conceded her $ 200,000 to Peter Hoffman, a jeweler from Beverly Hills. He sold part of the rights to Victor Barbishu gem of Colorado Springs, leaving himself 33% of ownership. Barbish told reporters that he had received a proposal from some individuals from the group of Osama bin Laden, buy him a gem for $ 60,000,000 to give Hussein as an "overture of unity" between the "Al Qaeda" and the Iraqi government. Barbish said that he had received other offers to buy him a pearl for $ 40,000,000.

He added that a few years there was a gem in the vault of the Denver bank and it does not reveal the secret of its current location. However, the owner did not pass off a miracle of nature to some museum or library. " We sacrifice this gem , - he said. - We do not want money for it. We want to give it to charity in order that everyone can see it, whether it be in a museum or a presidential library. "

LARGEST SAPPHIRE "Lone Star"

Among the famous star sapphire known sapphire " Lone Star ", weighing 971 carats . He was also called " Harold Roper "on behalf of the owner of the stone. Another sapphire, which is considered the largest of stellate, had a weight of 600 carats. He was found in Burma in 1966. Sapphire " Black Star of Queensland "was found in Australia. It got its name because of its dark blue, almost black color. After processing the mass of stone was 733 carats . Close star sapphire was found in Sri Lanka. Weight of the stone, called the " Star of India ", was 563.3 carats. This stone was stolen from a New York museum, where it was stored. And only two years later was safely returned to the museum.

Another famous sapphire " Eye of God "serves as an ornament to the throne Nadir Shah in the unusual transparency.Sapphire " Logan "in 62 carat ring adorned John D. Rockefeller.

LARGEST PLATINUM NUGGET "Ural GIANT"

The largest of the existing platinum nuggets weighs 7 kg 860.5 g . called " Ural giant . " Kept in the Diamond Fund.

The largest nugget of pure gold

Found in 1869 in the area Moliagul pcs. Victoria, Australia, nugget " welcome the stranger ", weighing 70.92 kgcontains 69.92 kg of pure gold.

By the way:

In the constellation of Centaurus, a distance of about 50 light-years from Earth, astronomers discovered a star, they called Luky, is a giant diamond. Lump of crystallized carbon with a diameter of 1500 km is the core of an ancient star that was very similar to the sun, but later faded and reduced in size.

Payne

Payne entered in Guinness Book of Records as the world's most rare gem ... the beginning of 2005 there were onlyeighteen known specimens, all numbered and described. Of these, pure red peynitov was only 3, and was considered the most severe instance №5. This stone was cut into an oval and weighs 2.54 carats . In 2006 he was found another source peynitov in Burma, from which it was lifted about 10 tons of raw material. Newly found peynity were very dark red, even more so - a brown-red or red-brown stones, and their value was a thousand times lower than previously known .. However out of 10 tons of raw materials managed verge of about 300 stones (it only about rocks JEWELLERY QUALITY), and now the total number of known and confirmed peynitov not exceed 330 pieces worldwide (data from July 2009).

In general, the color spectrum ranges peynitov from pink to red and brown. Payne has an extremely strong pleochroism and flyuoristsiruet gorgeous green under ultraviolet light. The world's only reliably attested deposits are in Burma, in areas Mogoga and Kachin. Payne received its name in honor of the British gemologist Arthur Charles Davy Payne, vprevye it investigated and described.

In recent years, the Internet is often offered for sale peynity. And if you believe in the reality of the proposed very dark brownish red peynitov difficult, but still possible, it is proposed for the relatively high for e-commerce price red transparent peynity are absolute fraud! This red net Payne has no value - It's priceless !!!

Distinguish real, even sverhtemny Payne from a fake very easily even at home. Under normal light blue lamp Payne real noticeable turn green.

Serendib

Mineral Serendib (not to be confused with Seranditom) is found in various parts of the globe. But the jewel Serendib remains with nairedchashim in the world. Serendib has a fairly wide range of colors - blue, blue-green, light yellow, dark blue and black. Currently reliably confirmed the existence of a little over 1000 faceted serendibite, of which the vast majority are completely black. But for example light blue serendibite there are only 3 copies, 0.35 carats, 0.55 carats and 0.56 carats . The first 2 were found famous seeker gemological rarities DP Gunezekeroy, more of them are represented in the photograph. Both stones were bought by the late Professor Gyuble from Switzerland, who appreciated the smaller Serendib 1 $ 4300 per carat.

Serendib has a very complex chemical composition that includes calcium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, boron and oxygen .. Serendib name comes from the ancient Arabic name of Sri Lanka «Serendibi», referred to by Sinbad in the description of his sixth trip.

All the unique clean, bright colors serendibite were found in Sri Lanka, and the black serendibite (in fact - an extremely dark blue), which are cut from stones and jewelry collector quality, mined only in Burma, the only mine in the South Mogoga.

POUDRETTEIT

In 2000, in Burma, in the northern Mogoge, found a stone that after cutting has become a very beautiful purple, obviously precious stone weighing 3 carats . In 2004, in the same mine were discovered nine such crystals, including a pale pink, the weight of which was in the form of a faceted 9.41 carat.

Comprehensive study of these stones showed that they all belong to the mineral poudretteitu known since 1987. The name of the mineral was named after the family Poudrette , which to this day has a small mine located in the bowels of the highest mountain in the vicinity of Montreal, Quebec - Mont Saint grief-Hileyr. Since 1987, the mine was found a few dozen small, very pale pink, almost colorless crystals, recalcitrant despite its softness (5 on a scale of Mohs) quality cut.

To this day, in Burma poudretteit no longer detected, and the Canadian miracle mountain gave mankind only about 3 hundred stones of varying quality, of which about 2 dozen exceed a weight of 1 carat. Depending on the quality - purity and color saturation value poudretteita ranges from 2,000 to $ 10,000 per carat , not counting of course some of the largest and breathtakingly expensive stones.

GRANDIDIERIT

Light bluish-green or greenish-blue mineral recently been found in Madagascar. And before the first grandidierit was found in Sri Lanka and was originally mistaken for Serendib. The first sample in the 0.29 carat faceted trillion (pictured), was bought for the first time and thoroughly investigated in 2000 by Professor Gyuble in Switzerland.

Grandidireit - having trihroizmom (blue, green, white) stone was named after the explorer, historian and naturalist Alfred Grendidira, including finder and dug up the bones in Madagascar famous fossil bird elephant weighing more than half of tonny.Po Nowadays, reliably confirmed the existence of 8 grandidieritov and about a dozen suspected stones that can be identified as grandidierity.

Eremeeva (DZHEREMEEVIT)

Eremeeva - almost colorless, sky blue or very pale yellow stone, named after the Russian mineralogist Paul Eremeeva first who found this mineral in 1883 in the Namib Desert, Africa. Discovered to date in several regions of the world, jewelry and collectible eremeevity still mined (no more than 1-3 per year) only in Namibia. In nature, this mineral is found in the form of small prisms (obeliskoobraznoy) form. At first, these stones are taken for rare aquamarine color and unusual crystallization. In 2005, Switzerland was submitted largest known faceted Eremeeva weighing 2.93 carats. It is known for the existence of a few hundred faceted eremeevitov, their cost, including the Internet, depending on the quality, range from 2,000 to 20,000 dollars per carat.

Maggiore - PURPLE GARNET

Maggiore - a rare form of pomegranate purple. Madzhority arise either under the influence of fallen meteorite impact, or under the ground at a depth of not less than 400 miles! Named in honor of Alan geophysics Majora, who investigated the formation of garnet under high pressure.

First Maggiore was found in 1970 in a meteorite Koorara near the town of Yecla, in Western Australia. In 1990 he was found a few large crystals of Madagascar, near Bekili. Multiple instances in the next decade was found in Russia, Turkey and the United States. The most recent find is dated 2004, when in France, in the region of Shantoneo was found about a thousand slyudoobraznyh crystals, polished and subsequently sold at the price of $ 2,400 per carat.The most expensive to date, purple garnet Maggiore, weighing 4.2 carats , was sold in 2003 for 6.8 million dollars.

We can assume that as the development of mankind Moon and Mars madzhority cease to be unique rare, as on the Moon and Mars are much more favorable conditions for their formation.

TAAFFEIT

Taaffeit one of the most rare and unique collection of stones. For all the times it has been found a very small number of these stones, and most of them had been erroneously recognized as spinel. To date, only in Sri Lanka and Tanzania, from time to time there is a unique mineral. Since geological deposits in East Africa and Sri Lanka are related to our colleagues calculated to find Taaffeit also in Madagascar.

In 1945, Count Taaffe, Dublin gemologist found a pale pink-purple stone in the box with the waste jewelry workshop.In appearance and properties of spinel stone reminded him, but showed a clear birefringence. Stone was sent to the British Museum for analysis, where it was determined that this stone is unknown mineral. Although the index of refraction is approximately the same as that of spinel taaffeit uniquely determined because of its double refraction and uniaxial negative characteristic.

Despite the constant search for the other taaffeit was found only in 1949, in a package with a scattering of stones from Sri Lanka. The third stone was found in 1957 by Robert Krouningshildom, expert GIA. Fourth taaffeit was found only 10 years later.

Since then, gemologists have been more or less aware of taaffeite and individual stones continue to be discovered.Several years ago, our partners, owning mines in Tunduru, Tanzania, found several taaffeitov in its raw material material raised to the surface of the mine. Since then launched an ongoing process of rechecking of all the material in the odobennosti - spinel, to detect the effect of double refraction. In the case of the slightest suspicion or uncertainty under further investigation by the most modern equipment. Due to this over the past 5 years, only in Tanzania was found a few hundred taaffeitov. The largest known today taaffeitov weighs 9.31 carats.

The world price for Taaffeit ranges from 2,000 to 10,000 dollars per carat

Tanzanite

The largest of Tanzanite ever found in Merelani - blue-violet stone weighing 16,839 thousand. Carat (more than 3 kg.) and the size of 220 mm x 80 mm x 70 mm . Stone was named Mawenzi in honor of one of the peaks of Kilimanjaro, the second highest. Stone is so rare and unique that its commercial and even insurance cost is still yet to be determined.

MUSGRAVIT

Do taaffeita have a very close relative - chemically and optically similar to it musgravit . The mineral was first discovered in the valley Musgreyv Range, thus earning its name. Later musgravit mineral was discovered in Grenkandii, Madagascar, Tanzania and even in Antarctica !!! But all of these samples could only be used for wall cladding, which was carried out by the Sultan of Brunei in one of its bedrooms .. And here is the first sample, suitable for cutting in the gem was discovered only in 1993. For some time it was thought that taaffeit and musgravit there are one thing, but in 2003 the study of the two stones on the Raman spectroscopy, using a green laser were obtained dokazatelsyva that taaffeit and musgravit - different minerals and different stones.

In 2005 it was reliably confirmed the existence of only 8 musgravitov, now known for 14 of these stones. The largest has a weight of 5.93 carats (submitted photo).

Benitoite

The only field in the world benitoite was found only in San Benito County, California. Benitoite - Stone intensely blue, with a very strong dispersion comparable to diamond, with intesnivnoy white and blue fluorescence under ultraviolet light.

The largest known benitoite weighs 15.42 carats, but stones weighing more than 1 carat are extremely rare, they know no more than ten. In 1974, at Zurich Airport was stolen 6.52-carat VVS drop benitoite, the loss has not yet been detected. There is a reasonable expectation that the stone was cut and peregranen 2 smaller and sold later on one of the closed auctions.

Since 1984, the state benitoite considered the jewel of California. The world market price of 1 carat small benitoite varies, depending on the quality, from 500 to 4000 dollars per carat.

RED DIAMOND

Only a few red diamonds have been found in the history of mankind, and very few people had the good fortune to see them and hold in their hands. The natural color of the red diamond is described as gemologists purpurnovato red, that is not a pure red (ruby). Regardless of the size of the red diamonds along with natural black diamonds are among the rarest and most expensive gemstones in the world. The world's only commercially mined deposits of colored diamonds in Argyle, Australia, annually produces calculate the number of red - and okolokrasnyh diamonds, in some years - only several carats .. Red diamonds weighing over 0.1 carats sold as a rule only through auctions, and their cost millions of dollars per carat.