I hear this all the time. Soliders sending back stuff from Iraq and Iran. For the most part I'm seeing synthetic alexandrite like corundum. Intense color changes and molded facets give it away.
I just read this article from National Jeweler Online and I thought I'd share it with you...
Gubelin turns microscopes to alexandrite, chrysoberyl
March 28, 2007
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| The Gubelin Gem Lab has initiated methods to determine the origin of alexandrites and chrysoberyls due to increased supply. |
Lucerne, Switzerland—Now that there are more gem-quality alexandrites and chrysoberyls on the market, researchers at the Gubelin Gem Lab have initiated a research project to analyze the stones and their origin, drawing samples from all commercially significant production areas worldwide, the Switzerland-based lab announced.
"Gem-quality alexandrites and chrysoberyls are now available from a large number of sources. This was not always the case," the lab said in its newsletter issued on Tuesday. "Methods of origin determination must keep pace with this increased supply."
The Gubelin newsletter also noted that mineralogist
Thomas Armbruster has won the Mineralogical Society of America's Dana
Medal for 2008. In addition, the new mineral species "Armbrusterite," a
silicate of potassium, sodium and manganese, has received International
Mineralogical Society accreditation, and will be named in honor of
Armbruster, who teaches at Berne University in Berne, Switzerland. He
is the first European researcher to receive the Dana Medal, and several
Gubelin lab gemologists are his former students.
So if your stones don't look like these...it's a good chance the stones are synthetic.
Patti









