Imperial Topaz (bi-color) (rare locality)

Item Description

Topaz is found in many worldwide localities, but this piece comes to us from a new small discovery in Zambia, which has produced some lovely Imperial Topaz crystals. While Imperial Topaz is best known from Ouro Preto, Brazil, there are a few other world localities where this famous variety has been reported. We got a nice parcel of these attractive new crystals in Tucson this year from our friend, who is personally collecting them. They are notably similar to the Brazilian crystals in both color and morphology, but I can say that some of these Zambian crystals are actually gemmier than many I've seen from Brazil. The reason you don't see any many gem quality Brazilian crystals is because a large percentage of them are faceted into gemstones, but our friend in Zambia didn't want to butcher good crystals, so we were fortunate to get some pieces like this with good gem clarity. This piece is a fine, sharp, lustrous, light orange and pinkish color crystal with good gem clarity in areas. The piece has a classic "chisel"-shaped termination just like the Brazilian crystals. No major damage, and a lovely example of these attractive and exciting new crystals. Specimen weight is 1.35 grams.