Benitoite — specimen 0248, photo © NMNHS

Benitoite — specimen 0248

Origin

North America

USA, California, San Benito County, Diablo Range, Santa Rita Peak, California state gem mine, 36.33611°N 120.60528°W

Data

Weight: 0.08 ct; size: 2.56 | 2.56 | 1.69 mm; shape: round; colour: light reddish orange; strong; clarity: eye clean; cut: very good; treatment: heating.

Notes

Very clean specimen; very good mixed style cut. Extremely rare form produced by heating of a colourless stone.

More information from ‘Classification’

Benitoite

In natrolite veins cutting glaucophane schist in a serpentine body (San Benito Co., California, USA); in a magnesio-riebeckite-quartz-phlogopite-albite dike cutting serpentinite (Japan) (Anthony et al., 2001—2005). Faceted specimens are very rare.