The rarest of gemstone Taaffeite

Investment in precious stones, diamonds, precious metals, and jewelry depends up on many factors but rarity results in high price as in the case of taaffeite and pink diamonds, where taaffeite is believed to be million times rarer as compared to diamonds. There are other factors which are responsible for high value of such stones such as mining, polishing and modifications during treatment, heating and enhancement. Branding, auctions and association with leading buyers significantly increases the value of these stones.   

The market price of taaffeite is in the range of US dollar 30,000 per carat to US dollar 35,000.  This is the most expensive stone, second to the red diamond (red diamond is worth up to one million dollar per carat). There are a handful of taaffeite stones in the world. It is one of the rarest stone; fundamentally, a cut gemstone instead of faceted crystal, and it can be far and wide be included as a rare collector’s item. It is mined from Sri Lanka and Tanzania.

Such gems are believed to be originally from Sri Lanka and some of the taaffeite and other stones react with related, or similar type of stones such as spinel, which makes it difficult to identify, although, cutting and laboratory testing of the stones provide clear information related to the difference in the refractive index.  This was first found in Dublin, Ireland in 1945 and it was believed to be a spinel, but later on the gem was found to be different from spinel, where the refraction is double in comparison. It was initially found in 1.4 carats and later re-cut into gemstone of 0.55 carat.  The 0.55 carat stone was given to the discoverer of the gem Edward Charles Richard Taaffe.

One more was discovered from region, which was 0.86 carats and this has been exhibited in a geological museum in London.  One of the rarest of these types was found by a Sri Lankan collector who found a stone of 13.22 carats, and another one of the type was Burmese taaffeite, which is of 3.04 carats.

Lately, a stone of 4.66 carats, ZnO, was discovered of color violet and the refractive index is high as in taaffeite. This was believed to be taaffeite but it was claimed to be a taprobanite. Later studies found it was indeed taaffeite, and taprobanite name was completely eliminated from the precious stone list. 

A different type of purple brown taaffeite was mined from Sri Lanka.   Some of the mines in China contain a low grade Taaffeite. Some taaffeite are expected to be in the spinel mines in different geographical regions such as Madagascar. The gravel in Sri Lanka is considered, one of the richest which contains illan. There are not many historical incidents or stories related to the trade of taaffeite. It belong to the family of Musgravite, where Musgravite was discovered in 1967 and is, basically, purple to green in color. 
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