Birthstone of the Month

By Will Postell - “Rock Reporter”

Here are two gemstones for the month of April, diamond and moissanite. In comparing the two, diamond is a perfect "10" with moissanite a 9.5 on the Mohs Scale of Hardness, making it the second hardest jewel known to man that easily cuts glass. It is highly resistant to heat, abrading, scratching, chipping, or shattering that can sometimes occur during jewelry work or normal wear.

Moissanite, a lab-created crystal possessing all the romance and passion of a diamond, is cut as a gemstone and now available as a simulated diamond. The faceted jewels (about 12,000 carats each month) are being offered in a variety of cuts. Its uniqueness, rarity, durability, brilliance, dispersion of fire, beauty, luster, and long-lasting charm are the properties one would naturally expect to see.

“Moissanite out performs diamond on all counts," as quoted by world-renowned expert Allan Hodgkinson, F.G.A., D.G.A. Moissanite is rarely perfectly clear of
color, but the slight color tints of green, gray, teal, and yellow, are said to enhance the jewel's spectrum; however, the appearance and degree of these tints may be
altered when moissanite is set in yellow or white gold or platinum.

Clarity is very important in any gemstone and moissanite is never sold with eye-visible inclusions; however, it contained some inclusions formed during its crystal growth in a similar way that inclusions are formed in other jewels. The mineral name for silicon carbide, moissanite (called by its trade name, carborundum), was given in 1905 honoring Dr. Henri Moissan (1852-1907), a French chemist and Nobel prizewinner who first discovered it. It is so rare; it had to be lab-created by man to be "available" in greater quantity.

... Will