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Aquamarine, 19th Wedding Anniversary

A deep blue cushion shaped aquamarine tops an irridescent blue Australian South Sea Pearl. View this lovely pendant here by clicking on the image.

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Emerald, Gem of Spring

Emerald is a gemstone known for its bright green color and is the birthstone for May. It also marks a couple’s 35th wedding anniversary.

Emerald is a member of the beryl family colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryls have a hardness of 7.5-8 on the Mohs scale, but most emeralds are highly included so their toughness is classified as generally poor. Emerald is the rarest of all gemstones and so is valued accordingly. They are mined all over the world, primarily in Central & South America and Africa.

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Aquamarine, March Birthstone

Aquamarine – March Birthstone, 19th Wedding Anniversary. Aquamarine evokes the purity of crystalline waters and the exhilaration and relaxation of the sea. It is calming, soothing, and cleansing. It inspires truth, trust and letting go.

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Spessartite Garnet

Also known as “Spessartine” this lively garnet is usually orange to reddish-brown and is somewhat rare. Most spessartites especially orange ones, have eye-visible inclusions.
Manganese is the element in Spessartiet that produces the orange color. Spessartite has been found in Brazil, Burma, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and the USA (San Diego County, CA). The most important sources today are Nigeria and northeast Namibia. Spessartites are not enhanced by any method. Hardness is 7 – 7.5 on the Mohs scale.

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“Precious Topaz” Jewelry

The term “Precious Topaz”, the finest quality of topaz, is often used to distinguish between true Topaz and lookalikes.
Citrine and Yellow Sapphire have been sold as “Gold, Scotch, or Madeira Topaz.”
Brown Topaz does occur naturally but the term “Smoky Topaz” refers to Smoky Quartz.
Blue Topaz can also be natural but most have been heat-treated to produce the specific trademarked Sky Blue, London Blue, Swiss Blue, etc.

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Citrine, Alternative November Birthstone

Citrine is an alternative birthstone to topaz.
Shown here is a simple little everyday birthstone pendant. A perfect gift!
We have a lovely collection of loose citrine to choose from for a custom order!

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Topaz, November Birthstone

Topaz, the birthstone for November, is naturally a transparent gem but it is found in various tones of yellow, gold, orange, red, blue, green, pink, and brown. It has a hardness of 8 on the Mohs scale, making it a nice jewelry gemstone.

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Wedding Jewelry

Sapphire is one of the two gem-varieties of corundum, the other being ruby. Although blue is the best-known sapphire color, they occur in many colors, including purple as shown here in these earrings. A pinkish orange variety of sapphire is called padparadscha. Sapphire, being 9 on the Moh’s hardness scale is a perfect gem for engagement rings and other wedding jewelry.

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Emerald, May Birthstone

Emerald is a variety of the mineral beryl, colored green by trace amounts of chromium and vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.8 – 8 on the Mohs hardness scale. Most emeralds are highly included, so their toughness is classified as generally poor.

Columbia is the world’s largest producer of emeralds. The three main emerald mines in Columbia are Muzo, Coscuez, and Chivor.

Zambia is the world’s second biggest producer. Emeralds are found all over the world in many countries. In the US, emeralds have been found in Connecticut, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, and South Carolina.