Zultanite - A relatively new gemstone from Turkey
By Peter Rosewarne
The Grand Bazaar – exterior and inside
My eye was
caught by an unusual looking gemstone in many of the jewellers in the bazaar
which was labelled zultanite. I’d never heard of it and did some investigation
on the internet. This may be old hat to many of you but was news to me. It’s
the gem form of a common mineral diaspore [(AlO(OH), orthorhombic and hardness
of 6,5–7] and is only found and mined high up in the Anatolian mountains of
Turkey. It is pleiochroic and changes colour in sunlight (kiwi green) and
artificial light (pink-violet-raspberry hues). Seems like a sort of Turkish
version of alexandrite. Fake stones are very common apparently, consisting of
glass with trace elements but apparently the shops in the old part of the
bazaar are a fairly reliable source of genuine stones (you get an authenticity
certificate from genuine dealers apparently but I didn’t know this at the
time). I don’t normally or rather never buy gemstones but for some reason felt
the urge to buy a couple of examples of this zultanite. So I went back to the
Grand Bazaar and eventually bought a couple of relatively cheap and small
stones. However, they show the colour change in reverse to what genuine stones
apparently should, i.e. kiwi green in artificial light and violet-pink in
sunlight, so I’ve probably been scammed (see photo [stone is 1 cm × 1 cm];
although I saw an article that gives colour ranges for different lighting that
matches my stones, perhaps for fakes). But what the hell, I leant something and
had some fun in the process. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any rough samples
for sale. Anyone else have any experience of this gemstone?
Mosques in Istanbul
In : Mineralogy
