Imperial Topaz (rare locality)

Item Description

Imperial Topaz is a well-known variety typically showing a golden-orange hue, but rarely it can be pink, red or purple. The best-known examples come from Ouro Preto, Brazil, but a select few crystals starting coming out around 2009 from a new locality in Zambia. This is a very nice example from this small discovery that came out of the ground a few years ago. We got a good parcel of these attractive new crystals from our friend, who is personally collecting them. They are notably similar to the Brazilian crystals in both color and habit, 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 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 4.31 grams.