Leucite Value, Price, and Jewelry Information
Leucite is abundant in various lava rocks but is extremely rare in facetable crystals. The material has little appeal except for its extreme scarcity. Stones often have a slight milky or cloudy look, and anything over 3 carats is likely to be included.
Leucite Value
The International Gem Society (IGS) has a list of businesses offering gemstone appraisal services.
Leucite Information
| Data | Value |
| Name | Leucite |
| Crystallography | Tetragonal (pseudo-cubic). Crystals trapezohedral; granular. |
| Refractive Index | 1.50 |
| Colors | Colorless, white, gray, yellowish. |
| Luster | Vitreous; dull on some crystals. |
| Fracture | Conchoidal |
| Hardness | 5.5-6 |
| Specific Gravity | 2.47-2.50 |
| Birefringence | Low to zero. |
| Cleavage | Poor |
| Stone Sizes | Italian material has been cut to about 3 carats. There is very little of this material, always small, and clean only in very tiny stones. |
| Luminescence | Medium-bright orange in LW (Italy) or none. Bluish glow in X-rays. |
| Transparency | Transparent. |
| Formula | KAISi2O6. |
| Optics | Isotropic: N ~ 1.50. Optically (+) if uniaxial. |
Optics: Isotropic; N – 1.50.
Optically (+) if uniaxial.
Occurrence: in potassium-rich basic lavas. Wyoming: Montana: Arkansas: New Jersey.
British Columbia: France; Germany: Zaire: Uganda; Australia.
Alban Hills, near Rome, Italy: source of the world’s only transparent leucite crystals. These are colorless, up to about 1 cm.
Comments: Leucite is abundant in various lava rocks but is extremely rare in facetable crystals. The material has little appeal except for its extreme scarcity. Stones often have a slight milky or cloudy look, and anything over 3 carats is likely to be included.
Name: From the Greek leukos, meaning white.
