What is the most popular color of zircon?
Although collectors clearly love zircon’s color variety, consumers seem most enamored of just one hue: blue. Gem dealer reports indicate that at least 80 percent of zircons sold are blue. Because they’re in greater demand, blue zircons usually command higher prices than any of the other varieties.
Which zircon gemstone has the brightest Sparkle?
Zircon comes last in the Alphabets of gemstone but has the brightest sparkle. Zircon has a wide range of colors including white, blue, yellow, orange, brown, rose and green. It is a gemstone with great ancient history and is a natural, magnificent and underrated gemstone. Blue Zircon is the most demanding Zircon also known as Starlite.
What does low type zircon look like?
Low-type zircon occurs in gem quality only in Ceylon and only as rolled pebbles in the gem gravels without any trace of crystal faces. The color is usually green and usually tends to be a grayish to yellow-green with a somewhat cloudy texture; brown and orange stones are also known to occur.
How can you tell if a zircon is pure blue?
Blue zircons should be examined by daylight to determine if the blue is pure and not modified by a yellowish cast, particularly in one dichroic direction. If a yellowish cast is present, it indicates a stone that may be reverting to its original color.
What is the best color of zircon?
Among those who are familiar with this gem, zircon is especially admired for its attractive blue colors. Some zircons display warm autumnal earth tones such as yellowish and reddish brown, inspiring fashion trends.
What is the most common color of zircon?
Quality Factors. Among consumers, blue is the most popular color of zircon.
Can zircon be pink?
Zircon Treatments Zircons are commonly heat treated to colors ranging from colorless, to cinnamon, sherry, yellow, orange, pink, and red. The most commonly sought color is blue. The colorless variety has been used as a diamond imitation because of zircon's diamond-like luster and high dispersion.
What colors do zircons come in?
WhiteYellowBlueGreenRedPinkZircon/Colors
Which zircon is best?
Blue zircon is the most popular variety. It comprises 80 percent of all zircon sales and commands the highest prices. Blue is almost always the result of heat treatment. Zircon is often cut in the brilliant style to showcase its diamond-like luster and fire.
Is zircon rarer than diamond?
In fact, it is much rarer than diamonds but is considerably less valuable. Zircon comes closer to resembling diamonds than any other natural gem. Its superior luster and intense fire give it a real sparkle that is comparable to a diamond.
Is red zircon rare?
This is a rare property that only some zircons have. Gems stored in a dark area (e.g. safe) will have a bright ruby-red color when they are first taken out. Once they are exposed to light they slowly turn into their 'normal' orangey-brownish-red color (usually within a few minutes).
What is a rose zircon?
Rose Zircons have colors that are reminiscent of Imperial Topaz or fine Malaya Garnet. Colors range from peachy-pink to pink to reddish-pink. These gems are not to be confused with Cubic Zirconia (CZ) which is a man-made substance. The name 'Zircon' derives from the Persian word 'zargun' meaning golden hued.
What is blue zircon worth?
Prices for blue zircons average around $75 per carat for 5 to 6 carat gems. The better colors with fancy shapes can wholesale from $125 to $150 per carat. Top gem blues can reach $200 per carat. Stones over 10 carats range from $150 to $175 per carat.
Is red zircon expensive?
The golden color known as honey zircon tends to be less expensive, as does the red zircon from Africa. Red zircon typically ranges in price from $75 to $125 per carat, while the honey zircon sells for $50 to $100 per carat. Exceptional colors or very large sizes will be more.
Can zircon change color?
Zircons are often heated to change or lighten the color. Heating can turn brown zircons to various shades of yellow, orange or red. Some brown zircons can be changed to shades of blue when heated in a reducing environment to approximately 1000 C.
How much is a red zircon worth?
The price of Red Zircon in India ranges between Rs 1,500 per carat ($25 approx) to Rs 6,000 per carat ($90 approx) or even more.
Does zircon change color?
Zircons are often heated to change or lighten the color. Heating can turn brown zircons to various shades of yellow, orange or red. Some brown zircons can be changed to shades of blue when heated in a reducing environment to approximately 1000 C.
How can you tell real zircon?
1:576:29Zircon Stone Benefits & Uses | How to Test Real & Fake Zircon - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipIt is found in wide array of colors across the world. For example colorless blue red yellow orangeMoreIt is found in wide array of colors across the world. For example colorless blue red yellow orange purple and green etc. Though blue is perhaps the most popular and expensive one however almost all
Is red zircon expensive?
The golden color known as honey zircon tends to be less expensive, as does the red zircon from Africa. Red zircon typically ranges in price from $75 to $125 per carat, while the honey zircon sells for $50 to $100 per carat. Exceptional colors or very large sizes will be more.
What color is blue zircon?
Blue Zircons have a pleasing blue color with just a tinge of green. This is one of the most popular color in Zircons, and they are available from light to medium shades. More intense colors are rare. They are not to be confused with Cubic Zirconia (CZ) which is man-made.
What is the color of Zircon?
Colors of Zircon. Zircon are beautiful rare blue, champagne and raspberry gemstones from Cambodia and Tanzania. Zircon’s diamond-like characteristics, along with its versatile colors, continues to make Zircon one of the most desirable gemstones. Hardness 6.5 – 7.5. Refractive Index 1.810 – 2.024.
How hard is zircon?
Zircon is a durable gemstone (Mohs’ Hardness: 6.5 – 7.5 ) well-suited to everyday wear. Always store Zircon carefully to avoid scuffs and scratches. Clean with gentle soap and lukewarm water, scrubbing behind the gem with a very soft toothbrush as necessary. After cleaning, pat dry with a soft towel or chamois cloth.
What is the highest quality clarity grade for colored gemstones?
In order to maximize these optical properties, Zircon needs to be carefully cut with an eye-clean clarity, the highest quality clarity grade for colored gemstones. A gemstone since antiquity, Zircon is one of December’s birthstones.
Where does raspberry zircon come from?
Champagne and Raspberry Zircon come from Tunduru in Tanzania’s Ruvuma Region . Natural scarcity combined with increasing marketplace demand, intense competition and sporadic production, is decreasing the availability of calibrated Zircon, especially over 1 carat, resulting in increased prices.
What is the brilliance of zircon?
Zircon has a sharp brilliance, excellent scintillation (play of light), Diamond-like luster (adamantine) and a high fire that adds both beauty and value (also known as dispersion, this is the splitting of light into its component colors). Zircon is also strongly doubly refractive (light splits into two rays as it passes through the gem).
What is the name of the gem Zircon?
Ostensibly named after the element ‘zirconium’ present in its chemical composition, the gem name ‘Zircon’ has two possible etymologies; one is the Arabic ‘zarkun’ (red), another the Persian words ‘zar’ (gold) and ‘gun’ (color).
Where can I find blue zircon?
Rarity. While Zircon is found in Cambodia, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Tanzania, Cambodia is the world’s premier source for Blue Zircon. Also known as Ratanakiri Zircon, Blue Zircon comes from Ratanakiri (‘gemstone mountain’ in Khmer), a northern Cambodian deposit noted for yielding some of the world’s finest specimens.
How hard is a zircon?
Although zircons have a respectable hardness for jewelry stones (6 to 7.5), that falls well short of diamond’s famous 10. They also have a very brittle tenacity, lower than that of most gemstones. Their facet edges tend to chip and wear easily.
Where can I find zircon?
Sources. Zircon is found all over the world, but gem-quality crystals are rare. Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia are the primary sources of gem-quality zircons. Sri Lanka produces material in all colors in gravels, including rare cat’s eyes.
What is the radiation that breaks down a zircon crystal?
This radiation is barely measurable. However, over millions of years, the radiation breaks down the crystal structure. These stones, usually green, become metamict . That is, they are materials that have lost their crystalline structure and become amorphous due to radiation. Metamict zircons have a lower RI and brilliance than the crystalline type.
What is the difference between a zircon and a diamond?
The most obvious optical difference between zircons and diamonds is birefringence (double refraction). While diamonds have no birefringence, zircons have such a strong birefringence that gem cutters must orient the table of the stone to the optic axis. Otherwise, the interior may look fuzzy due to facet image doubling.
What are the characteristics of zircon?
Some, such as its high refractive index (RI) and dispersion, seem to have made it the “natural choice” for a diamond simulant, so to speak. When properly cut, colorless zircons can make very convincing diamond imitations and even outshine mediocre diamonds.
How to distinguish a zircon from a diamond?
The most obvious way to distinguish a zircon presented as a substitute diamond from an actual diamond is by the former’s birefringence.
Where do zircon gems come from?
The largest zircon gems come from Southeast Asian gem gravels.
What colors does Zircon have?
Zircon can display earthy colors such as yellow, orange, and brown. - Courtesy Richard Krementz Gemstones
What is Zircon jewelry?
Zircon is a gemstone that’s not commonly known among jewelry buyers, which is a shame considering the number of beautiful colors it comes in. These include earth tones such as cinnamon, sherry, yellow, orange, and red. Among those who are familiar with this gem, zircon is especially admired for its attractive blue colors.
How many facets does a zircon have?
Round-brilliant cut zircons often have an extra set of eight facets at the base of the stone. The supply of zircon is generally limited, and typical sizes depend on color. Blue or green stones normally range from 1 carat to 10 carats and yellows and oranges up to around 5 carats. Reds and purples are usually smaller.
Why is it so hard to cut zircon?
Cut. It’s a challenge to cut zircon because the gem is brittle. Cutters usually fashion zircon in the brilliant style to take advantage of its luster and fire. A modification of the brilliant cut, known as the “zircon cut,” uses eight extra facets around the gem’s lower portion, called the pavilion.
What is the most brilliant non diamond gem?
One of the most brilliant non-diamond gems, colorless zircon was widely used as a lower-cost diamond alternative in the nineteenth century.
Why is Zircon blue?
Intense blue color in zircon is usually the result of heat treatment. Zircon’s blue, almost always the result of heat treatment , comes in a range that includes very slightly greenish blue, greenish blue, and very strongly greenish blue. Clarity.
How big is a blue zircon?
Zircon is available in a wide range of sizes, but blue stones as large as this 28.15-carat example are rare.
What colors does Zircon come in?
Zircon occurs in an array of colors. Its varied palette of yellow, green, red, reddish brown, and blue hues makes it a favorite among collectors as well as informed consumers. Zircon Description. Zircon History and Lore.
What is colorless zircon?
Colorless zircon is known for its brilliance and flashes of multicolored light, called fire. These zircon properties are close enough to the properties of diamond to account for centuries of confusion between the two gems. Zircon occurs in an array of colors.
What is a zircon?
Zircon is a colorful gem with high refraction and fire that’s unfairly confused with cubic zirconia. Cushion Cut.
What does double refraction mean in Zircon?
Zircon’s pronounced double refraction means you can see twice as many facets and twice as much fire.
Where is Zircon found?
Zircon found in Australia is the oldest mineral on earth: 4.4 billion years old.
Can a gem be imitated?
Any gem can be imitated—sometimes by manmade materials or by natural materials chosen by man to impersonate a particular gem.
Is zircon rare?
Zircon in fine quality is rare in large sizes. Zircon weighs more than most gems of like size.
What is low type zircon?
Low-Type Zircon. Low-type zircon occurs in gem quality only in Ceylon and only as rolled pebbles in the gem gravels without any trace of crystal faces. The color is usually green and usually tends to be a grayish to yellow-green with a somewhat cloudy texture; brown and orange stones are also known to occur.
Where do zircon stones come from?
By far the most important type of zircon to the trade is the high-property type from Cambodia and Thailand, where it occurs as waterworn pebbles or stones with traces of tetragonal crystal forms in colors ranging from pale yellow brown to deep red-brown.
What is the name of the stone that is yellow?
Two descriptive terms have been associated with the name zircon , neither of which is very specific, and today their use is diminishing. HYACINTH, or JACINTH, has been used for reddish-brown natural zircon (as well as for hessonite garnet), and JARGOON has been used for pale yellow to colorless stones from Ceylon. The name zircon is of doubtful origin. It may have come to us through the French from the Arabic "zarkum" meaning "cinnabar" or "vermilion" or from the Persian "zargun" meaning "gold colored". Both could allude to the color of natural crystals, although the latter would seem a better description. The word zircon was first used by Weiner in 1783 for crystals from Ceylon. Jargoon (or, as it is sometimes spelled, jargon) probably has the same origin as zircon. Hyacinth was the name of a youth in Greek mythology who was slain; the wild hyacinth flower supposedly sprang from his spilled blood. Since wild hyacinth flowers in Greece are blue to violet blue. Pliny, in the first century A.D., compared the stone hyacinth with amethyst. Other ancient writers in alluding to hyacinth are surely describing blue to violet sapphires.
What is Zircon used for?
Many gem species have certain varieties that appear on the market only after they have been treated in some way to make them more attractive or saleable than in their natural state. Zircon (pronounced ZUR-conn) is a species that would undoubtedly be little known to the modern jeweler, if heat treatment were not used to convert the rather dull, natural stones into colors that are virtually unknown in nature. To be sure, one occasionally sees yellow-brown, yellow-green and cloudy dark-green stones that are probably untreated. However, their use in jewelry is very restricted and would be considered by most jewelers to be of interest only to avid collectors, jewelers are usually acquainted only with the heat-treated colorless and blue stones.
Why do zircon stones have a fuzziness?
Because of the high birefringence of high-type zircon, stones with the optic axis parallel to the table, or nearly so, will show a fuzziness caused by the doubling of the back facets . This is particularly true in larger sizes. If this is to be avoided, the stones should be cut with the optic axis perpendicular to the table. To judge this factor, the stones should be observed directly through the table. Those with no doubling in this direction are more attractive, although they may not necessarily command a better price, since color and other factors must also be considered.
How is zircon separated from sand?
In Florida and Australia, zircon is separated from sand by gravity concentration methods. The ore is used in the manufacture of refractories, high-temperature industrial ceramics, and chemicals, it is also used as foundry sand and as the source of the metal zirconium.
How many carats are in a blue zircon?
Blue and colorless zircons are usually available in sizes from a few points in weight to nine or ten carats. At one time prior to World War II, 15 to 25 carat blue stones were available from many suppliers. Since the War, stones in excess of ten carats have been very scarce, especially in truly fine colors.
How to identify blue zircon?
In order to identify the Blue Zircon, many methods can be used keeping in mind the physical properties of the stone. The stone is blue in color and is non-sensitive to heat. It will have a greenish tinge when viewed from one direction. It has many-faceted shapes and with refractive index testing, it can reveal its quality and damage done to it due to radioactivity. It is best to consult a gemologist in order to identify it as they have the best expertise in the field.
Where can I find zircon?
Zircon is found in the igneous rock formations and gem gravels globally. Zircon of gemstone grade is found in placer deposits, shaped rounded or water-worn pebbles. Blue Zircon is found in large quantities and great color variation in the deposits located in Thailand, Cambodia and Sri Lanka. These three countries contribute a major portion of producing zircon gem material. Zircon is obtained as a byproduct of corundum mining in the countries including Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
How much does a blue zircon cost?
The price for the Blue Zircon varies depending upon its color and weight of the stone. On average, the price is $75 per carat for a gemstone that has a weight of 5 to 6 carats. The one with fancy shapes and better colors can be found at a price from $125 to $150 per carat on the wholesale market.
What is the most demanding zircon?
Blue Zircon is the most demanding Zircon also known as Starlite. A few gemstone verities in blue color come with good hardness and brilliance. It is also the most brilliant blue gemstone with a higher refractive index. Blue Zircon is produced from brown zircon by heat treatment and is one of the most popular gemstones.
What is the brightest gemstone?
Zircon comes last in the Alphabets of gemstone but has the brightest sparkle. Zircon has a wide range of colors including white, blue, yellow, orange, brown, rose and green. It is a gemstone with great ancient history and is a natural, magnificent and underrated gemstone. Blue Zircon is the most demanding Zircon also known as Starlite. A few gemstone verities in blue color come with good hardness and brilliance. It is also the most brilliant blue gemstone with a higher refractive index.
How is blue zircon formed?
Blue zircon is formed by the process of heat treatment. It has a vitreous to adamantine luster, sometimes greasy as well. Like the refractive index, the hardness varies from 6 (low quality) to 7.5 (high quality). The fracture in Blue Zircon is conchoidal. It is transparent to opaque in nature for its transparency and poses the phenomenon of chatoyancy. It is uniaxial optics and has pleochroism which is distinct in blue color stones. It has a strong absorption spectrum ability.
What color does blue zircon turn?
Blue Zircon can appear in a range of blue tones varying from pale to saturated colors. The phenomenon of Pleochroism gives a look slightly greenish color when viewed from one direction.
