Tourmaline Var. Cuprian

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This is a major specimen example of the single most famous tourmaline find in Brazil (or, at least, one of the two along with Jonas in 1978), from the small pockets of cuprian-tourmaline found in the late-1980's here. The crystal is complete, terminated all around except the bottom. It has a riveting color and is fat and robust, so it shows a depth of hue rarely seen in typically skinny, slender Paraiba tourmalines. It glows from across the room, thumbnail or not, with a totally unique green-blue color that is frankly fake-looking. This would be one of the ultimate grails of establishing an important gem crystal collection - they are simply NOT available. I have had only one other major Paraiba crystal specimen in my career, to illustrate how rare true crystals are (as opposed to gem fragments). This was obtained by well known gem species collector Ty Lawrence, decades ago. Reference the Min Record v22 pages 217-219 and v33 127-137: "almost all good crystals of any size tend to be shattered and the remainder are generally imbedded; non-gemmy and not of good collecting quality. Surviving crystals are usually in the 1-3 cm range...even very small crystals of good color, form, and transparency, will probably remain very rare in collections." If you saw this in person, in a case of cabinet pieces no less, your eye would simply go to this little jewel immediately. The color makes it an imperative. Along with a few other species like Phosphophyllite, the color is just so off-the-charts strange and bright that it is hard to believe it is real! Joe Budd photos.