Under normal circumstances, there are very few gemstones with obvious discoloration effect. They usually appear dark green during the day and reddish brown at night, that is, they look like green tourmaline during the day and pomegranate red at night.
In terms of the size of alexandrite, there are fewer large-grained alexandrites, so they are more valuable, let alone alexandrite cat's eyes.
Generally speaking, alexandrite with large grains, high transparency and few defects has a high price. Internationally, the price of high-quality alexandrite can reach 1,000-5,000 US dollars per carat.
Because alexandrite contains trace amounts of chromium, it transmits green light the most, followed by red light, and strongly absorbs all other light.
Therefore, during the day, due to the irradiation of sunlight, the most green light is transmitted through it, so it appears green. When illuminated by sunlight that is approximately white light, alexandrite also appears blue.
But at night, when candles, oil lamps or tungsten filament lamps rich in red light are illuminated, particularly a lot of red light is transmitted, so it appears red.
"Alexandrite" gets its name from this. The more dramatic the color change, the more precious it is.
If the discoloration effect and the cat's eye effect are combined on a gemstone, it will be an extremely rare gemstone with extremely high value.
"Is this the best quality alexandrite?" At this time, no one knew that this gemstone was very valuable, so Han Feng asked.
Han Kongque said: "The quality is definitely not low, and the price is definitely higher now."
Zhou Meiren said: "There are very few alexandrites themselves, so the price of alexandrite cat's eyes is definitely not low, but it also depends on the quality. Good alexandrite is hard to come by, and such high-quality alexandrite cat's eyes are even more valuable." It’s rare.”
As everyone knows, alexandrite with beautiful color changes is expensive, and high-quality alexandrite that exceeds one carat is even more expensive than high-quality rubies, sapphires and emeralds of the same size.
Because the quantity is too small, even if you have plenty of money, it is extremely difficult to obtain such gems. It is really hard to come by.
"I didn't expect to find alexandrite cat's eyes here. It's really unusual." Liu Xu also said.
Han Kongque said: "There is nothing strange about this. There is a precedent for emerald deposits producing alexandrite. For example, in 1830, alexandrite was first discovered in an emerald mine in the Urals, Russia."
"The United States is really vast and rich in resources. It even has alexandrite." Qin Mingyue said with emotion.
Han Peacock chuckled and said: "You are wrong about this. In fact, the United States is not a major gem producer, and their country's gem production is not large."
"Isn't there a lot of output like this?" Qin Mingyue pointed to the mountains of rough gemstones and said.
Liu Xu said: "It depends on how you say this. We seem to be lacking all kinds of minerals in our country now, but you have to look at how many years our country has been mining. If we don't talk about anything else, let's talk about gold. We have mined it since ancient times. After thousands of years, until now, our country is still a major gold producer, and the United States has only been established for how many years?"
Zhou Meiren also nodded and said: "The United States is one of the major consumers of colored gemstones in the world, but it is not an important gem producer. Of course, this was not always the case. As early as the first decade of the 20th century, tourmaline production in the United States was in It is the leading one in the world, but other gemstones cannot."
Regarding the distribution of gemstone deposits in the United States, Han Peacock has been doing a lot of research recently, and he knows that what the two women said is right.
The second most important place in terms of commercial gem mining is Arizona, USA, known for its significant peridot and turquoise minerals.
Arizona is also known as the source of agate, jasper, petrified wood, garnet and opal.
Turquoise is the most valuable gemstone produced in Arizona, although production is labor-intensive as it must be extracted gently by hand.
Oregon is internationally famous for its sunstone, a feldspar mineral. Sunstone is an elongated, interesting play of microscopic copper platelets that contain large amounts of color.
Oregon also produces a variety of agate, jasper, and obsidian.
Tourmaline was discovered in California at the end of the 19th century, between 1898 and 1914 at the Himalayan Mines, in San Diego County, which is the largest tourmaline producer in the world.
America's Pearl Company operates the only freshwater pearl farm in Tennessee,
Turquoise production also has a long history in California, especially in San Bernardino County, but the deposits are no longer active.
There are still tourmaline reserves in California, but the cost of mining tourmaline has become unaffordable, so many mines have been closed.
Most gemstones found in the United States are found in the West, with finds in Idaho, Montana and Nevada.
Idaho produces small batches of a relatively large number of gemstone varieties, including agate, jasper, garnet and opal.
Idaho is well known as a source of rare star garnets.
Montana's Yuwu Canyon is a famous source of sapphires, with gemstones found ranging in color from blue, green, pink, purple, yellow and orange.
Fine turquoise has always been produced in Nevada, but recent gem production has been dominated by opal and opal.
Gemstone deposits in the United States are discovered gradually, especially in the western mountainous areas, so it is normal for Han Peacock to discover tourmaline emerald mines in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
It is not unusual for several pieces of alexandrite to appear in the emerald mine. Of course, being able to find an alexandrite cat's eye can only be said to be Han Peacock's luck.
"How heavy can this alexandrite cat's eye be?" Han Feng didn't care about the others. What he wanted to find out most now was how much this alexandrite cat's eye was worth.
Han Xiaoxiao couldn't stand Han Feng's pride, so he said, "It's not worth it."
"How come it's not valuable? Didn't you hear that just now? This is very precious." Han Feng laughed.
Han Xiaoxiao smiled even more: "We have an alexandrite cat's eye at home. I heard it only costs 1.5 million RMB."
"One and a half million? How much is it?" Han Feng's face turned a bit sad. Or is it RMB? The price doesn't seem high!
Han Xiaoxiao chuckled and said: "A 14.30-carat alexandrite cat's eye is not worth 1.5 million U.S. dollars, but RMB, 10,000 RMB per carat. You are worthless!"
"Ten thousand yuan is quite a lot. I'm a big person, so why should I weigh 50 or 60 carats?" Han Feng said hesitantly.
Han Kongque was a little speechless listening to the conversation between these two unlucky children. The most important thing was that Han Feng must have been taught mathematics by his physical education teacher.
Liuxu endured it, fearing that the child would be shy.
But Meiren Zhou didn't have any scruples, she burst out laughing. It was the first time that Meiren Zhou found her son so funny.
Although Qin Mingyue is usually slow to respond and a bit silly, she is still very sensitive to numbers. After all, if you are not a householder, you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are. She has been in contact with firewood, rice, oil and salt a lot, so she naturally becomes sensitive to numbers.
"One carat is one hundred thousand yuan, right?" Although she calculated it, Qin Mingyue said it very conservatively and was afraid that she was wrong. After all, there were many evildoers in this family.
Seeing Han Xiaoxiao smiling so arrogantly, Han Feng understood immediately. His face turned red with anger and he was speechless.
"It's almost 17,000 US dollars per carat. The price is really not low." After a little calculation, Han Kongque came up with an accurate number, and this number should be the highest number among this lot of gems.
.
LiuXu also said: "The price is really not low. How many carats can this gem be cut into?"
Han Peacock looked at it carefully and said: "If it is cut into round beads, the shock is almost more than three centimeters. How can such a heavy bead weigh more than 20 grams? If converted into carats, it would be 100 carats. Even if it is 17,000 US dollars per carat, it is still
It’s selling for $1.7 million.”
"Only 1.7 million US dollars?" It couldn't be compared to the lake blue tourmaline just now! That gem was worth tens of millions of dollars, so Han Feng was very disappointed.
Han Kongque said with a smile: "This one is small! If this piece of alexandrite cat's eye can weigh over a kilogram, that would be amazing."
At this time, Zhou Meiren said: "That's not how the price is calculated. The quality of the variable cat's eye that Xiaoxiao just mentioned is not high. When the cat's eye is placed under a condensed light source and at the correct angle, the gem's direction of light will
Half of it shows its body color, and the backlit half shows milky white.
The alexandrite cat's eye has a yellow-green hue under sunlight, and purple-red under light. Its color-changing effect can be said to be from yellow-green to purple-red, which is already a good color-changing effect.
But it is incomparable to this one. Whether it is the color of the cat's eye or the color after the discoloration effect, it is not as good as this one, so the price of this one is much higher. The price of an alexandrite cat's eye of this quality in China is
More than 160,000 yuan per carat.”
"One hundred and sixty thousand yuan per carat? Is this the most expensive gemstone in the world?" Liu Xu said in surprise.
Zhou Meiren nodded and said: "That's not wrong. This is still the previous price. It seems very expensive, less than 20,000 US dollars per carat, but this is the internal valuation of our jewelry company.
If some means are used, the final market price will definitely exceed 30,000 US dollars per carat. This is mainly determined by the quality of the gemstones and the market. After all, the better the color of each gemstone, the more popular it will be."
When Han Peacock thought about it, it was really like this. Let’s not talk about the deep red color changed by the discoloration effect, let’s talk about cat’s eyes. Cat’s eyes can show a variety of colors. According to the texture and color, they are dense yellow, yellow-green, brown-green, and yellow-brown.
, brown etc.
The true color of this alexandrite cat's eye is honey color, and it shows a "milky white and dense yellow" color under the light.
So its cat-eye effect or eyeliner effect is very good, with the characteristics of narrow, clear and flexible.
So if this gem is calculated as one hundred carats, and the price is 160,000 yuan per carat, it is 16 million yuan, which is almost 2.6 million U.S. dollars in U.S. dollars. If it is calculated as 30,000 U.S. dollars per carat
, which is three million US dollars. (To be continued.)