Tourmaline 1.85 Cts.

Multicolor Tourmalines

Tourmalines come in a wide variety of exciting colors. In fact, tourmaline has one of the widest color ranges of any gem species, occurring in various shades of virtually every hue. Somewhere in Brazil in the 1500s, a Spanish conquistador washed the dirt from a green tourmaline crystal and confused the vibrant gem with emerald. His confusion lived on until scientists recognized tourmaline as a distinct mineral species in the 1800s. The confusion about the stone’s identity is even reflected in its name, which comes from toramalli, which means “mixed gems” in Sinhalese (a language of Sri Lanka). It’s a term Dutch merchants applied to the multicolored, water-worn pebbles that miners found in the gem gravels of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). People have probably used tourmaline as a gem for centuries, but until the development of modern mineralogy, they identified it as some other stone (ruby, sapphire, emerald, and so forth) based on its coloring. Tourmaline becomes electrically charged when heated. Also when squeezed: it’s piezoelectric too. Brazilian is a source famous for vivid blue to green tourmalines colored by copper (Paraiba)

Tourmaline is a birthstone for October, along with opal. Tourmaline is also the gem of the eighth anniversary.