This past weekend was my old mineral club's annual gem & mineral show. It's a great event to pick up rare gems and minerals from serious collectors instead of commercial dealers. This time I was offered a deal I couldn't refuse, benitoite.
(Available on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1225583221/15cm-benitoite-crystal-specimen-with?ref=listings_manager_grid)
For those of you who don't know, benitoite is one of the rarest gemstones in the world. A barium-titanium-silicate BaTiSi3O9, It is found in only a few places on Earth, San Benito Co., California, Arkansas, Montana, Australia and Itoigawa, Japan. Specimens large enough to be faceted for jewelry pretty much exclusively come from the California locality though. It is the California state gemstone and top quality gems will fetch more per carat than diamonds. It also has a refractive index equal to and occasionally higher than a diamond. It's rarity & hardness have kept it from becoming a commonly used gemstone which is why you probably have never seen one or heard of it.
Now, to the goods!
(Available on Esty:The dealer, whose name I won't mention, is a friend of mine and a second generation dealer after his father. He often deals in higher end specimens so this was not a big deal for him to part with. In fact he said he had lots more where this came from!
I had actually spent the previous two days spending all the money I had budgeted, about $600, when he said he would make me a deal on a bag of benitoite. Then from under the table he pulled this out.
I felt ice flow through my veins and imagined this is what diamond or emerald dealers feel like when they are offered a bag of gemstones. It was an intense rush.
Wholesale I was looking at about $500 in material, retail could get up to about $1500 if I played the material right. So I told him I'd like to get it another time as I had just spent all my money. Then he said, "Well, how about $150?". I actually laughed, pulled out my last $100 cash and paid $50 via plastic immediately. It was impossible to pass up, but I wouldn't really know how lucky I was until I got home and started sifting through it.
The breakdown went like this:
10.3gm misc.
1.5gm bi-color(white or clear to blue)
11.7gm cabochon or cutting rough
28.6gm specimens.
(not shown)Black neptunite that I didn't weigh, but are valuable in their own right.
For me the specimens are where the money is. Many, if not all the specimens have terminations, crystal end growths, so that is a huge plus. There is one larger specimen that I will keep in my collection as it's 8 carats, 1.5cm and gemmy at the termination.
Here are some pictures of other specimens in the lot.
Those 7 crystals alone could fetch up to $500 retail.
And lastly, two more I put up on my Etsy shop.
(Available on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1225639705/13cm-benitoite-crystal-specimen?click_key=e28edc0612c9e67d9f5022d0f9bedfd333cf146b%3A1225639705&click_sum=c2a9c68f&ref=shop_home_active_3&sts=1)
And this lot of 50carats of rough!
(Available on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1212265862/50-carats-10gm-benitoite-gem-rough?click_key=0b3fd577ecfd982719ab7b535c0293ad60062d30%3A1212265862&click_sum=ebdad3c9&ref=shop_home_active_1&sts=1)
A lot happened over the weekend. I got incredible stones & rough at ridiculous prices, like I can 10x the stuff easily, but there was one thing that is going to lead to something different, something big....
The bible to collecting gems at Topaz Mountain, Utah. Huh, God was definitely giving me a sign. I guess I better go on a road trip then! Wednesday, Utah here I come! Yeeeeehaaaawww!
