Gemstone named after a famous banker
I recently bought a 22-gram morganite rough from an antique market. Morganite is a beryl*, the same class of mineral as its much more famous green variety (emeralds) and blue variety (aquamarines). Unlike emeralds and aquamarines, the pale, very slightly purplish pink morganites are not expensive. This 110-carat rough only cost me CAD $20 (USD $15, EUR 14, GBP 11.80).
* Beryl is a mineral composed of beryllium aluminium cyclosilicate with the chemical formula Be3Al2(Si O3)6.
By the way, morganite was named after John Pierpoint ( J.P. ) Morgan the well-known banker. Mr. Morgan was an avid gemstone collector and close friend of gemologist George Kunz. When the pink beryl was first discovered in Madagascar in 1910, Mr. Kunz proposed the name morganite at a meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences on 5 December 1910 to honor his friend and customer J.P. Morgan.
www.gia.edu/morganite-history-lore
Gemstone named after a famous banker
I recently bought a 22-gram morganite rough from an antique market. Morganite is a beryl*, the same class of mineral as its much more famous green variety (emeralds) and blue variety (aquamarines). Unlike emeralds and aquamarines, the pale, very slightly purplish pink morganites are not expensive. This 110-carat rough only cost me CAD $20 (USD $15, EUR 14, GBP 11.80).
* Beryl is a mineral composed of beryllium aluminium cyclosilicate with the chemical formula Be3Al2(Si O3)6.
By the way, morganite was named after John Pierpoint ( J.P. ) Morgan the well-known banker. Mr. Morgan was an avid gemstone collector and close friend of gemologist George Kunz. When the pink beryl was first discovered in Madagascar in 1910, Mr. Kunz proposed the name morganite at a meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences on 5 December 1910 to honor his friend and customer J.P. Morgan.
www.gia.edu/morganite-history-lore