Hi there,
I’ve made a visit to Mogok, Myanmar recently and managed to collect a rough Serendibite and faceted Serendibite. But As I’m new in this field, I have no idea what’s the value of those gemstones.
If anybody could help me with some advice, it will be really appreciated.
The attached are the certs for Serendibite. Thanks!
Hello, I find your post most interesting due to some of my own experience with alleged Mogok Iron bearing Serendibites. I made a trip to the Mining College in Butte, Montana. They have an incredible mineral specimen library there and I highly recommend all IGS members to visit it and take their working mine tour as well. Anyway, the only specimen they are missing in their library is a Serendibite (because the material is so rare in nature). To put a value on something, you must know for sure what you really have. Send your stones out to the GIA Gem Trade Lab in Carlsbad, California and then out to Branko Deljanin’s Lab (CGL-Canadian Gemological Laboratory) in Vancouver BC, Canada. I wouldn’t trust the paper that your current reports are written on. I say this because I spent several hundred dollars attempting to verify my alleged Mogok 45.15 carat Oval Faceted “Serendibite”. GIA would not positively identify it stating, Species - “A MEMBER OF THE PYROXENE GROUP”, and, “Petrographic testing would be necessary to fully characterize this material.” Keep in mind that the “World Leader in Gem Identification” declined to positively identify the material after I paid the fees for them to do so. Hmmmmmm. Now, CGL Lab was much more thorough and they had the fearlessness to disagree with the GIA and identify the material as, “Natural Black Diopside*” with a long footnote, “This gem is part of isomorphous series with Augite and Hedenbergite and RI and SG are within the ranges of diopside, but slightly elevated due to higher iron content.” When you research Serendibite, you will find that it is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most rare mineral in the world … with just 18 known specimens … all numbered and accounted for. If you really do have a true Serendibite, then it might be comforting that three of those 18 known specimens sold for $14,300 per carat with the largest being 0.56 carat. I trust that my information was useful to you. Michael Hutton, PG, GD in Las Vegas; www.thediamondgrader.com 