Ten Exotic and Phenomenal Gemstones

the dazzling brilliance of Diamond the fiery red of ruby the ancient allure of emerald such revered stones are the stuff of legend and as such everyone knows these gems even though they are quite rare when I was a little girl if you went into a jewelry store you saw diamonds if you wanted something colorless you saw sapphires if you wanted blue emerald if you wanted green ruby if you wanted red and no one really had the opportunity to see how many wonderful gems existed in the world diamonds sapphires and rubies maybe the best known gems but there are many many more a wondrous kaleidoscope of color shape and composition the world of gemstones is filled with such incomparable treasures as sword shaped hidden Knight fragile and flawless petal light or the alluring colors of appetite these and other extraordinary stones are what is known as exotics when you think of some of the real exotic gemstones like petal light that is you know such a rare gemstone an exotic gemstone that a lot of people just aren't aware that it is even a gemstone other stones call phenomenal are coveted by collectors for their almost magical ability to change in the light the lustrous sheen of an exquisite black opal the iridescent of an ammolite or the winking cat's eye crystal Beryl this stone it was revered in these parts of the world especially in Asia and India because it represents the protective third eye little-known luxuries and mystical marvels join us as we explore ten of these exotic and phenomenal rarities from the world of gemstones [Music] [Music] because of its telltale blade shaped crystal our first exotic gem hit night could well be called the sword in the stone the crystalline structure has long splintery with a Roman sword type termination they're generally elongated an extremely rare form of the mineral spa I mean hidden Knight is noted not only for its unusual shape but also its color it can occur in a pale green and it's found in in many parts of the world in a very pale green the deep green is rare and unique in fact the deep emerald green variety of this gemstone is so scarce it rarely appears outside a handful of collections but hit mat in a jewelry store is virtually unknown the reason for hidden i'ts rarity is simple its source is just found in one place in the world let's see if that North Carolina it was named after professor hidden hid d en who was sent by edison to this area of north carolina to look for platinum to use and light bulb filaments well he didn't find platinum but he noted a huge number of gems and minerals that was in 1879 today the ground around hidden Knight still yields not only the town's namesake green gem but also sapphires and emeralds to have this deep green here tonight forming feet away from a rare chromium rich emerald crystal two totally different gem materials in virtually the same color just fascinating chemically the two stones oh they're deep green two traces of chromium but that's where the similarity ends emerald is a variety of Beryl while hidden Knight is a variety of spa amine containing lithium the colors actually are pretty close to the same the differences in the crystalline structure the lithium has one crystal structure beryllium has another and they're very distinctively different coming in at a seven on the Mohs scale of hardness hidden Knight is softer than an emerald and is much more challenging to cut since hidden Knights color is strongest at the top and bottom of the stone cutters must carefully orient the crystal to create the most vibrant color hidden Knights perfect cleavage further complicates the process because the stone splits very easily we've had pieces that were gonna weigh three and four carats that we were polishing the table the last part of the piece to be done and they split in half so then you got to go back and try to salvage which came out on there very very difficult stone to cut because of the stones relative obscurity hidden Knight is still highly affordable for the collector its market value remains low and many enthusiasts simply come to North Carolina in mind their own for a small fee first day we went in there there were so many people in one spot they didn't even have room but though dirt from one hole to the other one this area hasn't really been scratched people who handed can't do the things big machinery can do and apparently there's not enough here to job big machinery recently the first deposits of hid Knight outside of North Carolina have been found in Madagascar Pakistan and Brazil but those specimens are a paler green as supplies increase expect to see more of this exotic sword in the stone affordability is also a hallmark of appetite our next exotic gemstone found in a wide variety of colors appetite is often mistaken for Beryl quartz or tourmaline bright blue apatite in particular mimics the especially rare and expensive Paraiba tourmaline because it's more plentiful and because it has a lower hardness it commands a much lower price Paraiba tourmaline x' that have this incredible electric blue color to them like a Windex bottle those are tens of thousands of dollars a carat and habit itis' somewhere between 10 and maybe $100 a carat appetites uncanny ability to mimic many different gems is what earned the stone its name from the Greek for I am misleading it's a great substitute for pedigree but tourmaline without having to pay 1520 thousand dollars a bag you get this great vibrant blue look with a nice array of colors and it's an affordable price too the stone can also be treated to enhance its color it's also a stone that often as he treated to a darker blue for example but the teal kind of Caribbean blue color is natural and found in nature that way apatite also appears in a yellowish green commonly called asparagus stone and brilliant Purple's apatite is found around the world including North and South America Africa Europe India and Sri Lanka mostly it was coming out of Brazil that material somewhat dried up and recently there was a production that was found in Madagascar and this what was so great about this production was not just that it was available again but this was large sizes and it produced really vibrant colors that we haven't seen before while ranking a 5 on the Mohs scale of hardness apatite is softer than many gems though that's had little impact on its demand consumers have rapidly come to appreciate appetites natural beauty and its similar appearance to more expensive stones adding to the appeal of this brilliant but affordable Beauty apatite is one of the many stones set to possess mystical powers according to believers wearing apatite will aid focus learning concentration and communication a lot of times gems get their mystical characteristics or power you get get the credit of having some kind of mystical property because of the color and as we learn more about the effects of color on humans especially I mean we paint our homes and our rooms specific colors our offices certain colors because they evoke certain energies gemstones do the exact same thing color is also the key characteristic of the third exotic stone on our list and when it comes to color you could say this gemstone has a dual personality from just one mine in South America comes a stone that's actually two gems in one called ametrine it's a stunning combination of two distinct types of gem quality quartz rich purple amethyst and lovely golden yellow citrine somewhere along the line there was a temperature change or shift in the chemical valence and it produced a different color in the growth of that mineral so you have two gemstones in one the crystals grow in such a way that you actually have both colors within the natural crystalline while it was once common to split the bicolor druffs and sell the two gems separately both collectors and casual wearers have come to covet ametrine split personality today the stone is usually cut in a loss in shape to emphasize the color gradation and contrast that has to be cut in a special orientation so that you actually maximize the visual separation of those two colors so it takes a very special way of cutting that that crystal to see those two colors because otherwise they just would kind of blend together but there's more to a matress mystique than its unique blend of purple and gold this is a very rare gemstone when you think of the quartz family and the abundance of quartz that's on the planet there's only one spot on the planet that actually produces the right chemistry to create both of those in one gemstone piece of rough and that location is in Bolivia the anahi mines in Bolivia according to legend Europeans first discovered the stone in the 17th century when a Spanish conquistador married a native princess and received an a maturing as part of her dowry when the conquistador returned to Spain he brought the precious gem home with him he takes that gemstone back and presents it to the king queen as their gift today the anahi mine still produces top-quality ametrine as well as citrine and amethyst but since it is the only natural source future supplies are uncertain this is a great gemstone and it's available but not in large quantities but I think when people see it they should get it luckily there is an alternative to natural ametrine heat-treated amethyst so convincing that only gemologist can detect the difference we've taken a full amethyst crystal that's all purple and we've treated it so that only half of it turns to the citrine gold color that material is of lesser value while it still has a demand in the marketplace because it's not as expensive than the natural ametrine that comes from Bolivia both varieties rate a solid seven on the ten-point Mohs scale of hardness making this exotic stone suitable for all kinds of jewelry it has hit popularity in Hollywood we started seeing a maturing and bracelets and so you had a lot of high-end designers wanting to fashion with ametrine why wouldn't they any stone good enough for 17th century Spanish royalty is guaranteed to impress it's amazing to watch someone who is you know not into the world of gemstones as much as of course they will become when they see such gemstones they're fascinated that it's a two-in-one gemstone it is amazing to tell them that's natural they think that it's almost like it's been dipped but it's not it's 100% natural whether natural ametrine from the anahi mine or heat-treated amethyst available for a fraction of the cost when someone sees this spectacular stone for the first time they're sure to do a double-take [Music] our fourth exotic stone crystal-clear pedo light is so rare that it's guaranteed to catch the eye of even the most discriminating collector and it has been around for three centuries it was discovered in the 1700s and I would say probably within the past up until the last 10 20 years it was only a mineral species it was something that you'd find in a mineralogist or a connoisseurs collection it was not or maybe you'd see displayed at the Smithsonian it's not something you would find and someone's reigned at a cocktail party lately though this scintillating stone has started turning up in unique jewelry it has a feature is luster kind of a almost like a residue on top which is very very beautiful if it's cut just right if you find the right lapidary who can put a wonderful make on that gemstone maybe even put it into a fancy cut maybe a millennium cut it offers you a wonderful amount of brilliance and it really has a sparkle the secret to petal lights dazzling radiance lies in its unique leaf light cleavage in fact the stones name comes from the Greek petal on meaning leaf it can also be brittle and at 6 to 6.5 on the Mohs scale this stone is somewhat soft well-suited for pendants or earrings because of these characteristics it requires the utmost skill to unlock its icy beauty if you ask the cutter to cut petal light or cut amethyst they can cut five pieces of amethyst to one piece of petal a the petal a is so tough to cut most petal light comes from Brazil but it's also found in Australia and Namibia believed by some to aid in spiritual healing petal lights feathery brilliance and white color have also earned it the nickname stone of the Angels it's dinosaurs not angels that propelled our next exotic gem amber to newfound popularity a window to the past this rare orange gold stone is actually fossilized tree sap the beautiful mysterious remnants of a 40 million year old forest that once covered part of Europe today the finest specimens of this rare natural gem are found primarily along the Baltic coast in Russia Poland and Lithuania and can command prices as high as $1,000 fine true amber in beautiful colors and nice sizes is increasingly rare today and something that really should be treasured in the most treasured amber of all our gems containing the fossilized remains of pollen plants or even insects as made famous in the movie Jurassic Park these pieces of amber have encapsulated small insects or even plants and things like that that they can date back obviously 20 30 40 million years so it's very interesting the dinosaurs died off about 65 million years ago so most of the amber that we have today doesn't really contain anything that would allow for a dinosaur to be somehow recreated from the blood that some will mosquito sucked from a dinosaur even so these prehistoric time capsules can still be of use to science those pieces do have extinct insects extinct plant life and fauna in some cases there is water molecules that have been encapsulated so we can actually study these and determine what happened and let's say the environment that existed at that time period and then determine how things have evolved since so we can really recreate that that particular age by studying the materials that have been so perfectly preserved inside these pieces of amber man has also collected amber since prehistory a mere 2.5 on the Mohs hardness scale it was among the earliest gems ever fashioned into jewelry it was easy to drill it was easy to put little hole through it was easy to to tie something around it and wear it so I I think it's Talas manic character it's amulet characteristics and its beauty all came together personal adornment as well as mystical beliefs associated with these things from ancient times archaeologists have found amber amulets dating back to the Stone Age in the Bronze Age Baltic amber was traded as far away as Greece and even turned up in King Tut's tomb centuries later the Roman historian Pliny the Elder wrote that the cost of an Amber figurine no matter how small exceeded the price of a healthy slave their references made the amber that go back to the earliest recorded history of humankind amber has never really fallen out of fashion between 1895 and 1901 million kilos of Baltic amber were fashioned into jewelry but the most famous work in amber is a couple centuries older in the early 1700s King Frederick the first of prussia commissioned an amber study for his palace his son Frederick William later gave the amber panels totaling six tons to Russia's Peter the Great installed in the Armitage Saint Petersburg's Winter Palace the room was often called the 8th wonder of the world until looted by the Nazis it disappeared during the Second World War it has not been recovered since I think parts of it probably exist somewhere and I believe that many other parts of it probably were used for jewelry and sold in 1979 Russia's armitage museum began painstakingly recreating the room twenty-five years later the first wall is now complete giving modern visitors a sense of the stunning original it was one of the most famous you know incredibly beautiful architectural or interior decorating feats of probably the last 200 years a relative of the ancient amber is copal sometimes called baby amber copal is another type of tree resin indigenous to Central America it was once treasured by the Aztecs who burned it as incense it is identical in appearance to amber but it's available and it's far less expensive than amber and it also has it can be found with bugs and other kinds of material that's trapped inside of that another lower-priced alternative is reconstituted amber formed from pieces too small to be individually fashioned into jewelry you have small pieces of amber that have basically been crushed and reconstituted with plastics to create an amber which has certain characteristics similar to amber and other siddhart gem number six and the first phenomenal stone in our countdown is also a prehistoric fossil called ammolite it's the remains of a millennia old ancestor to the squid and is categorized as a phenomenal stone because of its fiery play of color also called opalescence you haven't heard much about ammolite because it's difficult to extract if not impossible to separate from the host so it's difficult to get pieces that are large enough to cut and create a really beautiful piece of jewelry mind mostly in the Canadian province of Alberta ammonites formation dates back millions of years ago to the Cretaceous period when a shallow sea bordered the Rocky Mountains as the waters receded the creatures that form ammolite were buried by layers of sediment do you have a shell that has been under a lot of pressure and and layers on top of it where over millennia it has altered and left this layer on the surface that gives these spectral colors that you see over centuries the calcium in the shell was replaced by pyrite iron and calcite these colorful minerals produce a rich Sheen and a shimmering iridescent that iridescent can rival in my opinion can rival what you see in play of color and a lightning ridge black opal which is the finest in the world most of the colors that you see are gonna be red some little bit of yellow and maybe blue flashes but probably red green and orange occasionally a specimen is so perfect that it can be a free-standing sculpture this is a rarity to see is you had the actual fossilized squid-like creature that existed millions and millions of years ago and if you can actually if I turn it here you can actually see this specimen even has baby ammonites attached to the back so they were able to extract this from the earth perfectly which is very difficult to do long known to Native Americans the Blackfoot tribe of Idaho fashioned amulets from the ammolite that were believed to aid in tracking Buffalo in the early 1970s interest spread to a wider market and a Canadian company began mining and marketing the rare and beautiful stone generally speaking the jewelry trade doesn't want to hop on the bandwagon until there is enough supply for everybody to benefit if they're going to start promoting the stone they want to make sure that if their customer comes in to get that stone they won't have any problem getting that stuff the challenge at first was not only locating sufficient supplies it was also working with the thin and fragile layers of ammolite it does occur in thin strata if you will and you don't want to damage that you don't want to break it to protect this fragile Beauty jewelers often fashion pieces with a protective layer of quartz crystal it's cut into these thin slabs and then covered with a quartz top so almost every piece of ammolite that you see does have a quartz top on top so it's technically a doublet it makes fabulous pendants fabulous earrings I don't know that I would want it in a bracelet and I think you have to be cautious and ring mountings to make sure it's protected but I think it's a wonderful stone that's also under appreciated ammolite is most popular in Asia used in Fung Shui it's known as the seven color prosperity stone and each color is believed to influence the we're in different and positive ways it's shimmering play of color is reminiscent of our next phenomenal stone the increasingly rare and expensive black opal famed for its fiery play of color our next phenomenal gem has been a favorite since antiquity the Ryman's really treasured opal it with became the most sought-after and precious of all gems in the Empire today opal is mined in the u.s. Mexico Brazil and Ethiopia but 95% of the world's supply comes from Australia where the stone is a national symbol one that dates back to the earliest Aboriginal myths on that I love particularly is the story of they create a coming to Earth in the form of a rainbow he hit the rocks of the reaches around lightning ridge and the next day the aboriginals saw these rocks on the ground and they were the first opals so it's quite a lovely little story and that link with the rainbow to because of course it is the rainbow stone the real story of opals formation is almost as amazing opal formed in the ground and it forms in nodules which are called na bees or inseams and this is because ancient water was traveling up and down through faults in the ground it became highly siliceous in other words the moisture contained a lot of silica it then would get trapped in various areas that might have been where that Michelle used to be I didn't filled that area where the shell was or in a seam it was a crack in the earth and just the opal in there in a gelled hardened and then 100 million years later we dig it up opal is unusual among gemstones due to its composition made up of silicon dioxide its water content can be as high as 20% it also lacks an organized crystal structure the pie of color is actually there because of the structure of the stone the small spheres within the molecules form in spheres and there's diffraction of white light creating the colors several kinds of opal are found in Australia white crystalline and rarest of all the highly valued black opal black opal is extremely beautiful when it was first seen on the market in Europe they didn't believe it could be real it was so beautiful I'll show you something really special in black opal this is a wonderful blue green stone see the color in that is just stunning and like many of the exotic and phenomenal gems on our list the best black opal comes from a single source Australia's lightning ridge lightning ridge was found in 1905 and it produces the world's black opal the finest black opal in the world it's extremely rare and the resource is running down as we speak unfortunately it's probably not producing 15% of what it did and it's extremely problematic for the industry we just can't source fine material these days it's really impossible to say where any opal is so you can't say that I'm gonna drill a hole and pull up you know a kilo of it well that's just not how it how it works like explorative or oil or steel or copper cold weed really we're drilling and if we cut some Tracy so a bit of a reasonable thickness open or open up when a rich strike is found a bulldozer and excavator are used to open a scene often though the miners blast and then remove the fill dirt by hand you would just pick it putting the bags and then go home was it so the dog and then the buyer comes and the money on the table and what it is no matter how the opal is mined it must be handled carefully among the more fragile gemstones opals hardness can vary from 5.5 to 6.5 on the Mohs scale it's not a very hot stone it's the hardness of glass so if you go throwing it around or banging it on a brick wall it's gonna it's gonna break like ammolite opal is often fashioned into a composite gem to make it stronger known as doublets or triplets doublets are made from thin slices of opal mounted onto a backing of black onyx or glass doesn't allow any lot to come from behind the stone and it forces the color out much stronger allowing us to create darker more vibrant colors a triplet is an even thinner slice of opal it's almost paper-thin slice of opal again we put it on the black backing but as a protective layer on top we put a glare of quotes clear quartz the study play of color and the use of protective substances for added strength and lasting beauty aren't the only similarities between opal and ammolite both gems can be a valuable part of the fossil record in Australia both alized fossils have been found dating back 100 million years the bones were actually opalized that in fact the scientific name that we gave that animal and it ended up on the front page of nature the premier science magazine in the world was stirap Adhan which means lightning tooth because there was subtle little bits of color coming out of this specimen in most cases these prehistoric relics are formed by the same process as any other opal as interesting as opals may be to science it is their great beauty and colorful patterns that give them an allure that has transcended time lesser known but equally colorful is another of the world's most interesting phenomenal gems labradorite something of a Sleeping Beauty labradorite is a dark feldspar that when turned in the light shimmers and startling blues and violets and sometimes greens oranges or yellows the rarest specimens can even display all these colors at the same time it's an interesting play of color if you will almost opal like but the character of the stone is totally different the way the color moves through the stone is very different the unique iridescent effect called labradorescence has nothing to do with surface color planes of crystals that formed within the gym cause like to be reflected and refracted if the planes are too thick or thin or if the angle of light or the viewing angle isn't quite right that color can't be seen if you can get some really nice lab door essence there's nothing else like in the world French missionaries in Canada first discovered labradorite in the 1770s since then deposits have also been discovered in Finland Norway and Russia a six on the Mohs scale it's not as hard as some gems but it produces a high polish and when cut into rounded cabochon x' the result is a shimmering stone that's beautiful and jewelry it's a beautiful gem that's been used quite a bit over the last probably 50 years in various types of jewelry and more recently picked up by a lot of the designers that are looking for a new and unusual gem material but it's most unusual and infamous use maybe as a building material standing in the middle of Moscow's Red Square Lenin's tomb is constructive of massive labradorite slabs the stone gives the tomb its distinct red and black appearance the blocks in Lenin's tomb were cut too thick to exhibit labradorites distinctive labradorescence but smaller pieces can reveal a lively play of color when carved into artwork there are some carvings that are just absolutely spectacular that were carved and here are Oberstein in Germany where some of the most famous gem carvers are from and their birds mostly birds and the way that the if you did a peacock out of it or if you did a duck out of it it makes it look like you see those feathers those peacock feathers because of those colors of you that are kind of subtle coming out of that gem material and a good Carver can really bring those colors out and there's really not any other gem material I can think of that could replicate that from its discovery labradorite has always been a favorite among gemstone Carver's because of its shimmering effect we also have Sunstone which is the orange II ready reddish colored feldspar very similar to labradorite but a different color millions of copper platelets trapped within the Sunstone reflect the light with varying intensities resulting in a golden red play of color called the Schiller effect labradorite was very popular in jewelry made during the Arts and Crafts movement in the late 1800s Early 1900s because of its serene demeanor and organic feeling in fact labradorite shimmering properties often led people to believe it has mystical powers the same is true of our next phenomenal stone whose unusual inclusions have earned the gem its animal-themed name at number 9 on our list is a stone that you might say has nine lives a rare variety of Crystal barrel called the cat's eye when the sunlight or any kind of light strong light hits it all of a sudden you see this sharp eye the cat side Chrissa barrel is one of the rarest and most coveted gems beauty however isn't the only reason people covet this extraordinary gem in many cultures this stone is considered enchanted it's believed to be a protective eye so in the Asian culture especially in the Indian culture and the single ease culture it's a it's as if you had a third like a god-like figure watching over you fine inclusions within the stone are responsible for this fascinating phenomenon the inclusions reflect light producing the bright pupil of the eye called chatoyancy French for cat's eye the effect is best seen if the stone is cut and polished into a dome-shaped cabochon known in the trade as cab the curve of the top of the Dome of the cab creates this line where light then reflects due to the inclusions within the cat's eye Christabel enhancing the eye effect the stone comes in a range of colors quite similar to those of an actual cat's eye that range of color can be anything from kind of an apple green to a golden kind of brownish color but the finest gems tend to be called Louise say this milk and honey so when you shine a light through one side of the stone one side is kind of a honey color and the other side is a milky color beyond color the value of a cat's eye crystal barrel is judged by the brilliance of its luster the sharpness of the eye its clarity and positioning the eye the intensity of that eye and whether or not the eye is centered when you're looking at the stone if it's cockeyed it's not going to be as interesting and as desirable as if it's beautifully centered since it rates an 8 on the Mohs scale of hardness the cat's-eye crystal barrel is as durable as it is desirable it's much more durable than many other gemstones and then especially tend to wear these stones and in large rings because it's such a tough stone the cat's-eye can be set in any sort of jewelry and the same is true of the last exotic and phenomenal stone on our list reading a very strong 9 on the Mohs scale only diamonds are harder than these rare radiant gems throughout history few gemstones have been more treasured than rubies and sapphires among the hardest of gems second only to Diamond these brilliant stones are both technically a gem quality form of the same mineral corundum and exceptionally tough aluminum oxide each owes their distinctive colors to impurities in the stone sapphire in its pure form it's clear there's a white one in the showcase there the blue color comes from titanium oxide and iron oxide in in the crystal lack of titanium oxide gives you more of the yellows and greens a ruby it's exactly the same as a sapphire it's colored but it's chromium oxide and iron that gives a red color and it is another impurity titanium dioxide which produces the spectacular star pattern found in a small number of rubies and sapphires you have this beautiful thing that you don't necessarily see until the light hits on it's as if you've looked up into the heavens and you've gotten to see a star flashing known as asterism the phenomenon is caused when the titanium impurities formed long needle-like inclusions called rutile within the gym highly refractive the rutile reacts would like to produce the astonishing effect what happens is you have when the ruby crystal grows it grows in a hexagonal crystal which means it's six-sided and these needles align themselves to the six sides of the crystal as the crystal grows like a cat's eye the star pattern is best seen when the ruby or sapphire is cut and polished into a rounded cabochon but when you cut that into a dome shape the where the points of those of those intersecting needles meet they reflect in a star-like pattern and much as a cat's eye crystal barrel the positioning of the pattern can greatly affect the stones value you want to make sure that that star is centered on the stone not off to the side and you want to make sure that that the the legs or all the legs of the star are complete and not broken that makes that star more valuable that gemstone more valuable a star sapphire or rubies value same as any other gem is also significantly influenced by color and clarity it's very rare to find a star Ruby or a star sapphire that isn't a little bit on the cloudy side because they've got all of these inclusions in them truly transparent gems are so sought after in fact that it's only the richest collector who can afford such an unusual stone very few people I know can afford a star Ruby or a star sapphire that is truly transparent with an incredible color with an incredible star because they are so incredibly rare but they're wonderful and you can see them in some of the major Mac museums around the world one of the most one of the finest set of star sapphires that I've ever seen is the Star of India it's in the Museum of Natural History in New York it's somewhere 550 560 carats deep blue color beautiful six rates our stone like that is comes along not very often this stone as I understand it was found about 300 years ago in Sri Lanka which is the source for most of the fine star sapphires on earth today and it was found in Sri Lanka in the gravels of Sri Lanka and it and it came to India made its way there such incredible fines are few and far between but that doesn't stop prospectors and buyers from scouring the remote corners of the globe endlessly searching for new sources of these sensational gems I was pointed in the direction last year to head to vietnam for a new source of star rubies so I took a quite a bit of traveling to get to this particular spot we landed in Hanoi and took an eight-hour drive on very windy roads up to about 20-30 kilometers from the Chinese border a spot that isn't even located on the map and this little place is famous now for producing star ruby fame however has not yet translated into accessibility but in the hunt for these exotic gems there are a few obstacles that buyers aren't willing to overcome we really hiked up about four or five hours up a mountain top and a grueling trip up there I mean it was an Indiana Jones experience and the object of the quest can be almost as elusive as the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail I was there for five days and in all the mining activity that we watched there was one little piece of rough probably the size of my little pinky fingernail that was produced while I was there so it is really rare that rarity along with their stunning beauty is why the star Ruby and Sapphire come in at the top of our list of exotic and phenomenal stones so there you have it 10 remarkable and rare stones that even within the wondrous world of gems truly stand out sword shaped hidden Knight the mimic like quality of apatite the unique yin and yang of ametrine petal lights feathery appearance or the ancient allure of amber all are equally exotic and whether it is the colorful shimmer of ammolite the fiery play of color and opal the mystical iridescent of labradorite lifelike wink of a cat's eye crystal barrel or the heavenly allure of the star ruby and sapphire these mesmerizing gemstones are truly in every sense of the word phenomenal [Music] you [Music]

Channel: JTV Live Now

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Keywords: jtv, jewelry television, exotic gems, phenomenal gems, gemstones

Id: fF07XsVU_uE

Length: 43min 5sec (2585 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 10 2020