Alexandrite

Nature 2 Minutes

Alexandrite is one of those gemstones that everyone would love to own, but few people do because it’s so rare and expensive. If you inherited a large alexandrite stone, get it tested because it may be a synthetic stone.

What Is Alexandrite?

Alexandrite is part of the chrysoberyl family along with chrysoberyl, also known as cat’s-eye.

Alexandrite appears bluish-green in sunlight and reddish-purple under artificial light like a light bulb.

The color-change quality in alexandrite is due to trace amounts of chromium. Chromium is also the trace element that makes beryl emerald’s green.

When Was Alexandrite Discovered?

French mineralist Nils Gustaf Nordenskiöld discovered alexandrite in the Ural Mountains of Russia in 1834. However, some accounts suggest the stone was found as early as the late 1700s.

When Nordenskiöld first found alexandrite in Russia, he thought the stone was an emerald.

The gem was named after Russian Czar, Alexander II, who was assassinated in 1881.

Even though this gemstone doesn’t have a very long history, it has been strongly associated with good fortune and is said to enhance creativity and focus.

The mines in the Ural region of Russia no longer produce large amounts of gem-quality alexandrite.

Alexandrite is now mined in parts of Africa, Brazil, and Sri Lanka although the gem is still extremely rare and valuable.

Most large scale alexandrite gemstones are found in antique Russian period pieces from the Victorian era. Victorian jewelry from England also featured alexandrite gemstones, but they were usually much smaller.

How Rare Is Alexandrite?

Natural alexandrite is rarer than diamonds and more costly than emerald, ruby, and sapphire.

Any alexandrite more than three carats is highly uncommon. Smaller stones are more readily available to commercial jewelers.

Top-quality natural Alexandrite can cost more than $30,000 per carat.

Pricing of Alexandrite is based primarily on the strength of the color change and the purity of the hue.

Unlike many other gemstones, natural alexandrite is often left untreated.

Not only does alexandrite change colors, but in extremely rare cases it can also exhibit chatoyancy or the cat’s-eye effect. This is when a white line shines down the center of the gemstone and moves around as the stone moves under a light source.

Because of the intense color change in alexandrite, color-changing abilities in other gemstones have become known as the alexandrite effect.

What Is Synthetic Alexandrite?

Due to the gemstone’s rarity, many types of imitations and synthetics have been on the market since the early 1900s. Fake alexandrite from the 1920s was made out of the mineral corundum (sapphire and ruby) and then laced with chromium or vanadium to create the color-change effect.

Synthetic alexandrite composed of chrysoberyl has been around since the 1960s. It is a very costly process, so this type of synthetic alexandrite is still very expensive.

Famous Alexandrite

The Smithsonian has the largest known faceted 66-carat alexandrite on display in their museum.

The largest uncut gem-quality alexandrite specimen ever found is the Sauer Alexandrite that weighs 122,5400 carats and was found in Bahia, Brazil, in 1967.

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Published by pat frederick

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91 thoughts on “Alexandrite”

  1. Morning All!
    i never realized how any months have multiple birthstones or “birth” flowers. some of these stones i have never heard of before…this one for sure probably because it’s expensive…LOL

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Juneteenth is a fricking joke, Allen!!!! Just stop already with these separate holidays! We are ALL Americans!!!

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  14. i love the ideas put forth in the article, but the repubs don;t have the stones. period. the author suggests that mccarthy set a deadline for each appropriations bill–no omnibuses he says. each dept gets a different deadline, then add in the caveats. like dept of ed–no funding for any school supporting dei–(and he lists quite a few others). then send it to the senate. they won’t like it, but mccarthy can claim the house did its job–it funded dept of education…and so on–go thru the dept cutting out the crap and fund the rest.
    https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/06/the_republican_house_must_make_the_senate_offers_it_cant_refuse.html

    Like



  17. Mayo clinic : Masculinizing surgery, also called gender-affirming surgery or gender-confirmation surgery, involves procedures that help better align the body with a person’s gender identity. Masculinizing surgery includes several options, such as top surgery to create a more male-contoured chest and bottom surgery that changes the genitals.


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  20. “Our Systems Reward Dysfunction And Destruction: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”
    CAITLIN JOHNSTONE
    JUN 19, 2023

    EXCERPT: “Our civilization is sick because all its systems ensure that human behavior is driven by profit, and health isn’t profitable. Nobody gets rich from everyone staying healthy all the time. The gears of capitalism will still keep turning if its populace is made shallow and dull by bad education and crappy art made for profit. Billionaires aren’t made by leaving forests and oceans unmolested, consuming less, mining less, drilling less, using less energy. The economy doesn’t soar when the world is at peace and nations are working together in harmony.

    If you programmed an advanced AI to arrange human behavior solely around extracting the maximum amount of profit possible using existing technologies, its world wouldn’t look a whole lot different from the real one. We’re being guided by unthinking, unfeeling systems that don’t care about the good of our minds, our hearts, our health, or our biosphere, which will sacrifice all of the above to accomplish the one goal we’ve set them to accomplish.

    It’s just a dogshit way to run a civilization. It doesn’t work. It’s left us with a dying world full of crazy morons hurtling toward nuclear armageddon on multiple fronts. Our systems have failed as spectacularly as anything can fail.

    It’s simple really: we settled for capitalism as the status quo system because it’s an efficient way to churn out a lot of stuff and create a lot of wealth, but now we’re churning out too much stuff too quickly and society is enslaved by the wealthy. So now new systems are needed.
    ❖
    So much of modern political life consists of the ruling class tricking the public into trading away things the ruling class values in exchange for things the ruling class does not value. Trading revolution for the feeling of being revolutionary. Trading actual freedom and democracy for the story of having freedom and democracy. Trading away the civil rights our rulers actually care about like unrestricted speech and freedom from surveillance in exchange for culture wars about racism and transphobia. Trading real labor for imaginary money. In every way possible we’re being duped into trading away real power for empty narrative fluff.
    ❖
    One part of the problem is that in this mind-controlled dystopia people are prevented from knowing how deeply evil their government is, so the idea of their government surveilling them and regulating their speech and their access to information doesn’t scare them like it should.

    This is why it annoys me when people say “Stop talking about the problems, we need to talk about solutions!” It’s like mate, we’re so far from ever being able to implement solutions — we haven’t even gotten to a point where a significant number of people know the problems exist. Step one is spreading awareness of the problems and their sources, because nobody’s going to turn and fight an enemy who they still believe is their friend. Systemic solutions are pretty far down the track from that point.”

    https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/our-systems-reward-dysfunction-and

    Liked by 1 person

  22. NF: I was somewhat familiar with Maajid Nawaz, but only in a peripheral way – I’d like to think he wasn’t a driving force in this but he clearly had to know. I’ve listened to his speeches more than once and he was dead-on, IMO. However, I am also 100% positive that this author is incorrect in claiming “peaceful religious organizations” were targeted if he is talking about the Muslim Brotherhood and such.

    However, my purpose for posting this is to show the secrets of the UK, which reveal that they were/are just as corrupt as our own intel agencies!!!

    “British ‘Counter Extremism’ Operations as Regime Change?”

    KIT KLARENBERG
    JUN 19, 2023
    EXCERPTS: “In April 2021, London’s Quilliam Foundation abruptly closed its doors. The world’s first “counter-extremism” think tank, founded with much fanfare in 2008 by self-styled former Islamists Ed Husain and Maajid Nawaz, sought to oppose the alleged encroachment of fundamentalist Muslim ideology in Britain and advocate for Western-style democracy in West Asia.

    Quilliam quickly gained a reputation for libeling peaceful religious organisations as terroristic, justifying surveillance and harassment of Islamic communities by British security and intelligence services as “good and right”, stoking xenophobic hatred of South Asians through scaremongering and outright lies, and aggressively lecturing the media, faith groups, and civil society on “deradicalisation”.

    Understandably, British Muslims never trusted Quilliam, greatly blunting its counter-extremism crusade. Grave doubts about the true motives and objectives of its founders existed as long as the organisation was in business, not least due to the vast sums it received from Her Majesty’s Government in its initial years – several million pounds, by some accounts.

    Officially, this funding ended in 2011, and it operated independently thereafter, although, in the immediate wake of its closure, fresh questions were raised about the spectral interests Husain and Nawaz may have been serving all along. Hours after the news first broke, veteran journalist Ian Cobain exposed how Quilliam was secretly established by the Office for Security and Counterterrorism (OSCT), a shadowy intelligence agency based out of London’s Home Office.

    British spooks planned to fund Quilliam covertly, “with money appearing to come in from a Middle Eastern benefactor, but actually channelled by MI6.” Instead, it was granted overt government financing, a move “eventually judged within Whitehall to have been a mistake.” “Should have run it from within the agencies,” an OSCT source lamented to Cobain. “They do this sort of stuff all the time. And you never find out.”

    Very long article but also very informative: https://kitklarenberg.substack.com/p/british-counter-extremism-operations

    Liked by 1 person

  25. sliding down…we’re back
    hubby appt went very well.
    shopping was disappointing…lol…joann’s had loads of empty shelves-they said they were “changing seasons” and didn’t have a lot of the fall fabrics out yet.
    and then we headed to Texas Roadhouse, but they open at 4 on a Monday…gees
    so we headed home
    we’ll go out next weekend for our lunch

    Liked by 1 person

      1. the only thing that did…LOL
        as we were driving home, he suggested this little restaurant we used to stop at before covid coming back from the mall. it was not only closed–they were tearing down the building as well.

        Like

  27. “Tongues Of Fire Come To Rest On Biden And Fetterman As They Speak In Unknown Languages”
    THEOLOGY · Jun 19, 2023 · BabylonBee.com

    “PHILADELPHIA, PA — Prominent theologians speculated the world may be on the cusp of a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit after President Joe Biden and Senator John Fetterman began speaking in unknown languages and tongues of fire came to rest on them during a joint public appearance.

    “This may prove to be a modern-day Pentecost,” said Rev. Brian Ross. “Though we don’t have any reports of anyone in the crowd hearing words spoken in their own language, we are hopeful that the Holy Spirit descended on the event. If it wasn’t the Holy Spirit, then we’re all in serious trouble.”

    Biden and Fetterman both gave brief remarks, or so witnesses assumed. “At least we think they were saying words,” said Jim O’Brien, who was present at the event. “No one could understand them, but it seemed different from the normal grunts and growls Senator Fetterman makes when he’s not trying to speak. President Biden was definitely attempting to say something, though it was in a language that is not of this world.”

    Some people in the crowd were confused, others were horrified, and still, others had their faith strengthened. “The Spirit of the Lord can still move today!” shouted one charismatic believer. “I’ve met a lot of people who have the gift of tongues, but Biden and Fetterman put on a far more impressive display than any I’ve ever seen.”

    At publishing time, the nation’s foremost theologians were still hard at work searching for anyone with the spiritual gift of interpretation to translate what Biden and Fetterman said.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. fetterman was asked about 1-95 and he said something like it’s a major ate-r-ree 95, 95, 95
      totally should be home trying to recouperate

      Like

  30. thrawlbrauna
    thrawlbrauna
    June 19, 2023 12:39 pm

    BREAKING: Judge Issues ‘Gag Order’ for Trump in Classified Documents Case Despite Presidential Campaign https://t.co/wZp79JPyyx

    — Spitfire (@DogRightGirl) June 19, 2023

    Reinhart again..
    4
    Reply
    Wethal
    Wethal
    June 19, 2023 12:45 pm
    Reply to thrawlbrauna

    He’s not a judge. He’s the magistrate assigned to judge Cannon, Trump and Nauta can apppeal.
    4
    Reply
    Marcia
    Marcia
    June 19, 2023 1:11 pm
    Reply to Wethal

    Retired Magistrate here: Correct.

    Like

  34. i’ve been checking the books…it’s some sort of sparrow and it’s trying to chase off the orioles and then it tries drinking from the hummer feeders…
    I keep chasing it and it keeps coming back

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I can’t imagine a sparrow chasing orioles!!! Is it the same size as them or smaller?

      Like

    1. There was an article on Remix about Germany being the “dirtiest” of the European countries when it comes to pollution. They just recently had to re-start some coal plants because the CC methods aren’t keeping up with demand. ROFLMAO – but this kind of crap happens in pretty much all of the African countries, I think.

      Liked by 1 person

  36. ROFL – I copied this from a Tweet M just posted…

    “An elderly man rear-ended a guy driving an expensive sports car. Enraged, the guy hops out and confronts the old man. “Look what you did to my car” he yells. “You’re going to give me $10,000 right now or I’m going to beat you to a pulp!”

    “Oh my” says the old man, “I don’t have that kind of money. Let me call my son, he trains dolphins and he will know what to do.” “Dolphins” the other driver huffs, while rolling his eyes. The old man pulls out his phone, dials his son and just as his son answered, the irate man snatches the phone away from the old man. “So, YOU’RE a dolphin trainer, huh? Well, Your old man here just rear-ended my car and I need 10 grand right now or I’m going to beat you AND your old man to a pulp.”

    “I’ll be there in 10 minutes,” says the voice calmly on the other end. Exactly 10 minutes later a Jeep pulls up and a guy hops out and proceeds to pulverize the bully, leaving him in a heap on the side of the road. When he finished, he walked over to his father and said….

    “For the last time dad, I train Seals, Navy Seals…..NOT dolphins!”

    Liked by 1 person

  37. Dadgum, it’s hot! There is a nice breeze but the temp just hit 97 on the patio w/not a cloud in the sky!!! Sheesh! Good thing I watered early!

    Liked by 1 person


  45. “In 2019, 33-year-old Betsy Ross was at the park in Visalia, California, with her family when they found a Muscovy duck’s nest. All the eggs were smashed except one, which Ross’s children begged her to save. On instinct, she popped it into her sports bra to keep it safe. After some research, Ross decided her best option was to leave the egg pressed against her body. She nestled it for more than 30 days, placing baggies of warm water on her chest to raise the incubation temperature. Eventually the duck began to peep, and after a difficult hatching, it survived. The bird bonded with Ross, so she fashioned a carrier for it out of a headband. But she’s since moved the duck to a farm. “He needed a place where he would be happy,” she says. —Suzannah Showler

    “Quality sleep is important, and investing in a good mattress can help. But in 2016, New Yorker Karan Bir recognized a potential loophole—mattress returns. For over a year, he slept on a rotating series of free trial mattresses, sourced from online companies with money-back guarantees. Bir realized he could hack the system by simply returning his purchases within 100 days. By the time he bid a bed adieu, he’d ordered another to take its place. Enough brands offered refunds that he could go years without actually paying for one. He gave up after he moved to an elevator-less building, however—lugging a mattress up or down several flights of stairs each time wasn’t something he was willing to lose sleep over. —Alex Manley

    “After selling his RV and truck for nearly $23,000 in cash this past August, a man in Ashland, Oregon, placed his haul in a shoebox. The low-security solution was temporary—he planned to spend the cash on a new vehicle a few days later. Unfortunately, his wife didn’t get the memo and chucked the container in the recycling bin, then brought it to the curb. By the time the couple realized their mistake, the money had travelled to a recycling centre in California. After the facility received a panicked call explaining the situation, an employee spotted stacks of $20 bills moving along a conveyor belt and called the waste-management facility in Ashland to alert them that the cash had been recovered. —Gabrielle Drolet

    Liked by 1 person

  46. the sparrow is not trying to drink from the hummer feeders–he’s pecking at it–like it’s a seed feeder.
    if he pecks a hole in it, he’ll wreck it!

    Liked by 1 person

      1. he seems to be driving the orioles away from the jelly feeder by sitting on the railing next to it but not actually eating the jelly…it’s puzzling.
        but they land on the hummer feeders and peck at it…
        next time i go out, i take the broom with me..LOL

        Liked by 1 person

  48. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Like

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