I’ve cruised on the Carnival Pride and Spirit within the past two years, and my fiancée and I just got back from a 7 day cruise on the new Ruby Princess. I like the Ruby, but there are some differences between it and the Pride/Spirit (or Carnival in general). I think I like Carnival a bit more (Than Princess), but that is not the purpose of my posing.
I’m writing about Tanzanite. On the Ruby cruise, we too had a buyer (Jewelry Shopper… whatever you call it) on the ship that talked a lot about the rare nature of Tanzanite, and mentioned the appreciation value that will likely occur with Tanzanite due to its limited supply.
While in Cozumel, my fiancée and I went into Tanzanite International and looked at a couple of nice rings. We left but returned at the end of the shore leave (about 45 minutes before sailing away). The shopper/buyer (Jen) was in the store. We found a third ring, and Jen managed to get them to take even more off of their final price (she helped get another $200.00 off). She said it was likely in the $11,000.00 range in the states (I paid $3.5 K), and my fiancée “loves” the ring.
Upon our return I took the ring into a highly regarded gemologist (one of around 500 certified at that level in North America). I didn’t tell him what I paid for it, the quality given by Tanzanite Intl. or where I purchased it until after his analysis. He did all the tests and explained everything to us (spending about an hour with us). The refractomoter test confirmed that the main stone was indeed Tanzanite, and the diamonds in the band appraised (from him) at a slightly higher quality than they represented at Tanzanite International.
At the end, he affixed a value at slightly over $5K, which made me happy; however I learned a couple of things from him that might be of interest to those thinking of buying Tanzanite.
First, it is a soft stone. On the hardness scale, he said it was around a 6, with Opal being another stone (although Opal is not a crystal as is the case with Tanzanite) with a similar hardness ranking. So we’ll have to be careful with the ring!
Second, he told us that while it is true that Tanzanite only comes from one mine, he speculates that many of the Tanzanite stones being sold now are “man made” Tanzanite. He said Tanzanite naturally occurs in the earth when heat and pressure are applied to a very common stone (found throughout the world) called Zoelites (I hope I’m listing that correctly here). He pulled out some texts to show us what Zoelite looks like, and apparently all one has to do is put Zoelite through a process to fire it for a period of time and it results in a “real” Tanzanite stone. Manufactured Tanzanite is indistinguishable from Tanzanite occurring naturally in the earth, including the refractometer test.
He speculates (said he can’t prove it yet, but is pretty convinced) that a lot of the Tanzanite being sold now is manufactured Tanzanite. But he also said that there is no difference between it and a stone occurring naturally in the earth. He bases his theory on the fact that the main mine where naturally occurring Tanzanite is mined has been flooded for (I think he said) the last 5 to 6 years, and while they are still mining Tanzanite from some of the still operable shafts on the perimeter of the main mine, those Tanzanites are usually much lighter in color than the stones that used to come out of the main mine.
What this means to me is that this theory about Tanzanites “running out” and thus becoming more valuable looses a bit of its credibility.
Do I think Jen and other Jewelry specialists on the ships are blowing hot air on purpose? No, my guess is that they just don’t know about this.
If you want to know more, give David a call (David Jeffrey Jewelry-Services) and ask him about man made Tanzanites. His number: (916) 485-4367. This is not a chain Jewelry store, but rather a small office (in Sacramento) where he does a lot of appraisal work (a lot of it for insurance companies) and custom pieces for customers. I was “very” impressed by this guy, and will go to him whenever I need any jewelry work done. I was given his name and number by another reputable jeweler in town that no longer does appraisal work.