Spinel ("floater")

This piece is a complete "floater" crystal of gorgeous glowing pink Spinel from the famous locality at Mogok. The piece is undamaged with very sharp, lustrous faces and textbook octahedral form. It's notably GEMMY inside when backlit, which isn't terribly common in crystals over 1 cm. This is a wonderful thumbnail sized specimen of this classic and beloved material that is rarely offered on the market these days. If you collect gem crystals, Spinel is a must have species, as it is one of the iconic and historically significant minerals out there, and it's almost never found in good sized gemmy crystals like this. The piece displays a strong glowing red fluorescence under UV light.
The area around Mogok is world famous for producing the finest crystals and gems of Spinel in the world. Many of these crystals have yielded the most impressive red Ruby Spinel gems ever found. Mogok is most likely the site of the discovery of the famous Black Prince's Ruby in the Crown Jewels of the UK. The significance of the stone in the crown is that it was actually revealed to be a giant (170 carat) Spinel, and not a Ruby as had been thought for centuries. Spinels are typically found in opaque, dark crystals, but we were fortunate to pick up a parcel of not only colorful but GEMMY crystals direct from the source!

Specimen #SPINEL111908