Any rock hounds here? Crystals, gems, etc.

Gracie

Diamond Member
Feb 13, 2013
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I love opals. LOVE them. So Marilyn was incorrect when she said diamonds are a girls best friend. Gimme some color, says I.

Anyway..I have a collection at Pinterest and KNEW which one I would give strollingbones IF I owned it..just cuz it is so damn cool. Looks like under the sea. Ehthiopian opal and cooler than cool.

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Meanwhile, here is some in my collection over there:

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And if you wanna see what else I pinned, here is the link:
Earth's Jewelry Box



What is YOUR favorite rock/stone/mineral?
 
Tanzanite. Looks like under a deep blue sea, too, doesn't it?

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I grew up in Southern California.

During my years as a Cub and Boy Scouts, we often took trips into the mountains and deserts to camp out. Gemology was one of my merit badges and I loved to search for semi-precious gems.

However, when I moved to a ranch in 1953, I became friends with a guy whose father had a rock saw and a tumbler. He also raised bees and we regularly moved the hives as the seasons brought different flowers into bloom. We also searched for gems.

I had a fairly extensive collection that I left with my grandmother when I entered the army. Sadly, she sold them to a collector and I never saw them again.

I have seen gems not on the precious list that were often more beautiful than diamonds, rubies, and emeralds.
 
Here's a little more info on Ammolite since a couple people asked.

Ammolite comes from the fossil shells of the Upper Cretaceous disk-shaped ammonites Placenticeras meeki and Placenticeras intercalare, and (to a lesser degree) the cylindrical baculite, Baculites compressus. Ammonites were cephalopods, or squid-like creatures, that thrived in tropical seas until becoming extinct along with the dinosaurs at the end of the Mesozoic era.

The ammonites that form ammolite inhabited a prehistoric, inland subtropical sea that bordered the Rocky Mountains—this area is known today as the Cretaceous or Western Interior Seaway. As the seas receded, the ammonites were buried by layers of bentonite sediment. This sediment preserved the aragonite of their shelled remains, preventing it from converting to calcite.

Significant deposits of gem-quality ammolite are only found in the Bearpaw Formation that extends from Alberta to Saskatchewan in Canada and south to Montana in the USA.
 
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I grew up in the southwest and can remember seeing the old Indian squaws wearing their beautiful turquoise squash blossom neckless jewelry as they shopped in the grocery store. ... :cool:

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Dealer Isaac Wolf Is Buyer of $83 Million Record Diamond - Bloomberg
"The Pink Star," a 59.60-carat colored diamond. The oval-cut stone, the largest internally flawless fancy vivid pink diamond ever graded by Gemological Institute of America (GIA), sold for $83 million -- a record for any gemstone at auction -- when was auctioned by Sotheby's in Geneva on Nov. 13. It was estimated to raise more than $60 million.
 
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[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO7UwZ3bNa4]National Geographic - $400 Million Dollar Emerald - YouTube[/ame]
 

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