Painite (ultra rare) (huge stone!)

Item Description

Next to Phosphophyllite, Painite is considered one of the "Holy Grail" of rare gemstones and one of the rarest minerals on the planet. It was named after its discoverer, British gemologist Arthur Charles Davy Pain. Believe it or not, the Guinness Book of World Records has described Painite as THE rarest gem mineral. Discovered in Burma in the early 1950's, from 1956 until 1979 only three crystals of this hexagonal mineral were known to exist! Recently, in Burma, there has been a new find of what is the largest discovery of this super rare gem. This is the result of years of laborious detective work, long days of digging and mining the few hills and sorting each and every crystal and fragment by hand. It is doubtful that there will be any more Painite, ever! Chemically, Painite is CaZrBAl9O18. However, it also contains minor amounts of chromium and vanadium and traces of iron that contribute to the orange-red to brownish-red color of the mineral. This particular gem, is an icredibly large (for the species), deep cognac brown color "Oval Cabochon" cut stone. It is very difficult to find stones with good transparency and rich color. Most gems are almost too dark to see any color and appear "black" on the surface. A slight amount of color shows up in this stone when STRONGLY backlit, but it's next to impossible to find a single Painite gem that weighs over 20 carats! The majority of cut Painites are less than 1/4 carat, so this astronomically larger than virtually anything I have seen before. There are some obvious flaws in this gem, but the size is what matters for this is extremely rare material. Please note that despite the great hardness of the material, it is somewhat brittle. Keep in mind that because of the tremendous rarity of Painite, we have seen it retailing for $4,000-$5,000 per carat, although due to the fact that this stone is not truly gem quality, it would not be valued as highly. It's more of a "bragging rights" stone, as you can tell people that you have a 20+ carat Painite in your collection. Nonetheless, the stone is safely worth $2064.00 in our mind.