Alexandrite

Alexandrite

Properties

  • Mineral: Chrysoberyl
  • Chemistry: BeAl2O4
  • Colour: Bluish green in daylight, purplish red in incandescent light
  • Refractive Index: 1.746 to 1.755
  • Birefringence: 0.008 to 0.010
  • Specific Gravity: 3.73
  • Mohs Hardness: 8.5
  • Phenomenon: Colour change, Chatoyancy (Cat’s eye)

About Alexandrite

Alexandrite is the very rare colour-change variety of the mineral chrysoberyl. Alexandrites changes colour under different light source. Gem connoisseurs call Alexandrites “Emerald by day, Ruby by night” because of this special optical illusion.

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History

Alexandrites were first discovered in Russia’s Ural Mountains in the early 1830s and were named after the future tsar Alexander II of Russia. It caught the country’s imagination because its red and green colours mirrored the Imperial Russian flag.

Sources

Alexandrites from Russia’s Ural Mountains were soon exhausted and since then alexandrites are found mainly in Sri Lanka, East Africa, and Brazil, but fine alexandrites are exceptionally rare and valuable.

Quality

Alexandrites are green by daylight it changes to a red or purplish-red colour by incandescent light. Fine quality alexandrites possess vivid hues and dramatic colour change. Alexandrites also comes in the form of cat’s eye alexandrite.

Trivia

Alexander II was assassinated in 1881.

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