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Where can I get a moonstone gem?
The finest moonstones are found mainly in Sri Lanka and Southern India. Other varieties occur Australia, Armenia, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States. The rainbow variety of moonstone can be found in India and Madagascar.
How much does moonstone sell for?
Prices for moonstones range from $10 to $1000, with clear moonstones free of inclusions, such as centipedes or unappealing greenish tints, commanding the highest prices.
How much is a moonstone gem?
The moonstone price range starts at around $10 per carat. It goes up to $30 per carat depending on the quality, i.e., Color, Clarity, Cut, Shape. The moonstone cost will rely on its genuineness and originality.
How is moonstone extracted?
In the mine, (no deeper than 30 feet or so) a worker will fill the bucket with clay, which is then brought to the top. Workers then rinse the clay in a bucket, drawing out the tiny moonstones. They swish the clay around in baskets, sifting out the stones. A white moonstone (above) and a blue moonstone (below.)
What is Sri Lanka moonstone?
Sri Lanka Moonstone, also popularly known as Ceylon Moonstone, is a high-quality and immensely popular variant of the calming and soothing gem called Moonstone (Chandrakant). Like other Moonstones, it can be distinguished by its distinctive blue color and has been extensively used in jewelry making for ages.
Why is moonstone so expensive?
Generally, the more transparent and colorless the body and more blue the adularescence, the higher the moonstone value. Historically, the most valuable colorless, transparent moonstones with strong blue sheen came from Myanmar. Unfortunately, this material is essentially mined out.
Is moonstone worth buying?
Moonstone is rare in both large size and fine quality, but Indian material with strong body color is abundant and very inexpensive. This is fortunate, because the material is usually well-cut and very attractive. Moonstone with a blue sheen, the most valuable kind, rarely occurs in sizes over 15-20 carats.
How do I get a moonstone?
Like diamonds and other gemstones, moonstones are assessed by the 4Cs: color, clarity, cut, and carat weight. An American Gem Society jeweler can help you find the moonstone you want. Generally, the more transparent the stone and the bluer its adularescence (or sheen), the higher its value.
Which moonstone is best?
Blue moonstones
The most prized moonstone is from Sri Lanka and India. Blue moonstones are highly valued because of their rarity. Such stones can only be found in Sri Lanka.
What is Sri Lankan moonstone?
Where is moonstone found in Sri Lanka?
Meetiyagoda
Moonstone can occur in several colours, but there’s only one place in the whole world that produces the exquisite blue moonstone—Meetiyagoda in southwest Sri Lanka. In fact, Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) was so associated with this mysterious gem that moonstone used to go by the name Ceylon opal.
How do you recharge a moonstone?
Recharging. After your moonstones are freshly cleaned, the best way to recharge their energy is by the light of the moon. Set your gems by the window overnight to let the moon empower it with fresh energy (a full moon is best).
Where can I find Blue Moonstone in Sri Lanka?
Meetiyagoda is just a couple of kilometres from the coast, midway between Ambalangoda and Hikkaduwa, sitting over the earth’s largest pegmatite vein of moonstone. The ten mines in Meetiyagoda are by far the world’s primary source of blue moonstones.
What are the Blue Moonstones of Meetiyagoda?
Moonstones of Meetiyagoda: Mining the Rare Blue Moonstones of Sri Lanka. These mineshafts are called yati illama, and are in actuality twin-shafts, each about 10m square; one for actual mining, and the other to constantly pump out the ground water that would otherwise fill the mineshaft. As the yati illama is dug,…
Where do Blue Moonstones come from?
The ten mines in Meetiyagoda are by far the world’s primary source of blue moonstones. The term moonstone was originally coined by the ancient Greeks to describe a particular gemstone that seemed to hold the ethereal light of the moon in solid form.
How do you get to the moonstone?
To get to the moonstone, the miners of Meetiyagoda dig deep rectangular shafts down through the claylike kaolin topsoil to the weathering surface of the pegmatite.