About Gold Sheen Sapphire
Gold sheen sapphire or golden sheen sapphire is a new variety of corundum from Kenya with unique golden sheen, inclusions, asterism and phenomena. The name goldsheen and goldensheen are interchangeable. The term “gold sheen” is used by GIA Thailand at first back in 2013. These golden sheen sapphires being certified as “rare & unique verity of corundum” by gemological laboratories in the world.
Almost all of the gold sheen sapphires available in the gems market are not enhanced by any kind of heating and other treatments at all and completely natural as the way which created over many millions of years of geological formation. Being natural, any simple gemological test good enough to prove that the stone is natural.
The Discovery And The Discoverer
The “Genuine Gems & Jewellery co., ltd” located in Bangkok Thailand started by Mr. Tanzim khan Malik a gemstone enthusiast, who made an amazing discovery of “Gold (Golden) sheen sapphire” in 2009. This variety of corundum excavated from a single mine from deepest Kenya.
As soon as he saw the rough he recognized the unique character of this sapphire stones and tried to cut the rough to bring out hidden inner beauty of the stone. After spending endless nights learning from his own mistakes, here by the end result was extremely gratifying.
Beware Of Fake Claims
As the saying goes, “All that glitters is not gold”. The same holds for comparisons between Brown Sapphires and Gold Sheen Sapphires. Brown Sapphires can sometimes exhibit a goldensheen, but this is a rare occurrence as a result of crystal morphology and unique characteristics based on needles and platelets.
Gold Sheen Sapphires themselves are a rare commodity in the gem world and one in which clarity of the stone is irrelevant. What matters is the opacity and color, based on mineral content of the stone.
The Color Spectrum Of Gold Sheen Sapphires
Gold sheen sapphire is a variety of corundum that found more then one color on top of the gold, the stones exhibit sheen of blue, green, gray and purple. Most gems have two to three colors, but a few have even four. Each stone is described by its primary body color or predominant color, secondary body color, and other colors present.
Gold sheen sapphires that covered with a blanket of blue, green or gray hue along with the gold in general called multi-color variety which comes under the exceptional quality in the grading system. The overlap of a the layer of yellow sheen particles significantly enhances the beauty of the stone.
Why Gold Sheen Sapphire Standout
The “gold sheen sapphire or golden sheen sapphire” differ from conventional sapphires because of exhibiting ‘gold sheen’ (an optical phenomenon). Which also commonly referred to as schiller or adularescence effect that caused by the gem’s molecular structure that refracts to the light. This creates an iridescence, which gives the appearance of light coming from within as well as shimmering on the surface.
Another unique occurrence is the interplay of blue and green colors exhibited in some stones when passing through light creates a vision akin to the ‘Aurora Borealis’.
Treatment And Enhancement
The gemological institute of Thailand used the Raman spectroscope to identify the mineral inclusions as follows. The goethite in gold sheen sapphire is a good indication of no heat treatment. The presence of boehmite and or kaolinite in the stone is a useful criterion to indicate that the stone is unheated
Currently the cutting and polishing of the rough gold sheen sapphire is the only process that imposed in order to keep them free from any kind of color or clarity enhancement and heat treatment. A simple gemological analysis be able to find whether the stone is heated treated or enhanced.
Inclusions And Patterns
Gold sheen sapphires however, were apparently translucent to transparent with golden sheen ± star effect caused by the reflection of the light from the combination of dense and well-oriented reddish bronze platelets, magnetite, goethite, hematite, zircon and short needle-like inclusions exist along three crystallographic directions in the “basal pinacoid” of sapphire. The richness of the hexagonal patterns and craze lines give it the most prominent sheen exhibited among any of the corundum or sapphire family stones.
The presence of the inclusions called trace elements, responsible of the unique sheen effect on the surface also determine the transparency of the stone too. Higher the dense of these elements result in more opaque and lower the density produces transparent, translucent, eye-catching, fine pieces.
The Trading Price Analysis
The trading prices of gold sheen sapphires mostly depend on the goldensheen effect, the transparency, the size, the body color of the stone, the pattern created by the sheen area, dark veins and the quality of six rayed star in the case of star sapphire. These sapphires are rarer and valuable when the stones are highly translucent but along with the presence of sheen elements that necessary to create the shimmering effect.
While other types of gemstones are still being mined in quantity, golden sheen sapphire becoming increasingly rare over time since the mine apparently depleted for good quality rough material. The trading prices have remained almost constant over the past year for commercial and mid grades. But the price of exceptional, translucent and multicolor variety of gold sheen sapphires fetches more than US$ 6,000 per carat in some extent as reported.
The Choice Of Jewelry Brands
Apart from the standard golden hue pieces, the new multicolored translucent gold sheen sapphires drawing interest in the trade. Cap Beesley, of New York-based ARD Analytics, was one of the first in 2014, to describe the new stone as “a unique sapphire which exhibits a shimmering gold effect juxtaposed against a golden backdrop.
This material with unique sheen, color and geometric patterns offers lots of creative options for designers, jewelers and manufacturers. It include coming out with a line of demi-fine jewelry that set in vermeil in original and affordable designs as well as high-end jewelry pieces.
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