The wispy feathers in this larger medium plus toned shield cut are hard to see (best from the pavilion) and do not effect the flash. The green is taken down a peg with a brown overtone in daylight, that is much less apparent in yellowish light. But if we are going to count pegs, this is a cuprian tourmaline and that does bring it up a peg in my book. I did not know this gemstone was copper bearing when I bought it and only discovered the fact with my spectrometer. I have no idea whether its copper content is actual making a significant contribution to the gemstones color. I does help make the shield cut unique in the collection.
The bottom line with this stone is a complex mixture of wispy feathers that are common in cuprian tourmaline, a fine tone level of medium plus with a nice yellow green color slight modified with a brown overtone. At 6.23 carats it is a fine sized for a shield cut.
Bruce
About Bruce Fry
I was born in Summit, NJ in 1947 and graduated from Summit High School in 1966. I graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in 1970 and after spending another year in graduate school, I left to see the world of Brazil. After spending some more time discovering myself, I ended up working for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for 32 years as an Air Quality Engineer in the Department of Environmental Protection. I retired in 2007 and took up faceting gemstones again after a long hiatus that reached back to my twenties. I had started cutting cabochons when I was 13 and bought my first faceting machine when I was 15, but ran out of money and time until I retired.
My great love in gemology is tourmaline and the collection presented here represents my effort to get as much beauty and variety in the colors of tourmaline as I can. I was particularly lucky in being able to get unheated cuprian tourmaline before copper was discovered in gem grade tourmaline from Mozambique.
