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J.C. Sipe Library > World's Rarest Gemstones
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World's Rarest Gemstones
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The French essayist Jean de la
Brueyere wrote that the rarest things in the world, next to a spirit of
discernment, are diamonds and pearls.
While diamonds are
certainly rare, natural colored diamonds are even harder to come by.
The rarest of all is the red diamond, with fewer than three dozen ever
found, most at less than half a carat. Red diamonds are generally not
available at any price, but they occasionally appear at auction, where
they have sold for more than a $1 million per carat. The most famous
and largest red diamond is the trillion-cut Moussaieff (also called the
Red Shield), which is a whopping 5.11 carats.
Though the
Red Shield is considered the single most concentrated source of wealth,
the Heart of Eternity, a 27-carat blue diamond valued at $16 million,
is deemed the most expensive colored diamond in existence. The blue
garnet is another rare and costly gem; it is especially noteworthy
because it changes color from blue-green in daylight to purple in UV
light.
California is home to benitoite, which is found only in
San Benito County. This stone, which when available sells for a
relatively affordable $2,000 a carat, is a deep blue and disperses
light much like a diamond. In 1985, benotoite was named the state
gemstone of California. If you can find the ultra-rare taaffeite, a
purple-to-red stone which boasts a double refraction and is literally a
million times more scarce than diamonds, it’s comparatively affordable
at $500 to $4,000 per carat.
The Guinness Book of World
Records once called painite, discovered in Myanmar, the rarest gem on
earth. From 1956 until 1979, only three crystals of this hexagonal
mineral were known to exist! This mineral reveals different colors from
different angles, and while it can show reds or pinks, orange and brown
shades predominate. Despite new discoveries of painite, complete
crystals remain few in number and facet-quality material remains even
rarer. |
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