The Only Resource, and High Demand, Gem Quality, will finally decide a gemstone's value!!!
If you like gemstones with provenance, then you’re going to love ammolite - iridescent fossilized ammonite shells found in Southern Alberta, Canada.
When the earth had only one continent with no forests or mammals, schools of ammonites hunted in the Tethys Ocean. Squid-like creatures with sharp, beak-like jaws buried in a ring of tentacles, ammonites ate what they could catch.
Ammonites suffered the same fate as the dinosaurs – they became extinct about 66 million years ago. An asteroid striking the earth and the cooling climate likely caused their demise.
As countless millennia passed, two species of ammonites – Placenticeras meeki and P. intercalare – slowly turned into stunningly colored fossils called Ammolite.
Their brilliant colors enchanted Native Americans who wore them to bring good luck while hunting buffalo.
Most Ammolite are green and red. Blue and violet Ammolite are more unusual, and typically more valuable.
High demand from Hong Kong and Japan in recent years caused the price of Ammolite to increase exponentially. People love these colourful gemstones, and Fengshui Culture also played an important role in demand. It is believed that colourful Ammolite will bring good luck to people.
In Japan, after the Emperor wore an Ammolite Ring for his wedding, the Japanese believed Ammolite represented 70 million years of love if you wore an Ammolite ring when getting married. It is a lucky stone that represents the best wishes for love! Since then, the high demand for Ammolite never ended for young people!
(The aboved Cabochon might be found in Auctions in near future! Very rare purple color, looks like strokes of paint! Natural and beautiful!)
Ammolite is classified as either fractured or sheet. Fractured Ammolite resembles stained glass; sheet Ammolite is an unbroken piece where the colors are continuous. Evocative names are used to describe its diversity of appearance: dragon skin (patterns resembling scales), cobblestone (patterns resembling a cobblestone road), moonglow (luminescent with few lines or fractures), and paint brush (looks like strokes of paint).
Sheet Ammolite is typically injected with a polymer to stabilize its thin surface layer.
Because the layers are thin, Ammolite is almost always assembled into a doublet or triplet. It is often backed with a material like shale, black onyx, or glass to form a doublet.
Sometimes, a top layer of synthetic spinel or quartz is added to form a triplet.
Ammolite is often fashioned into pendants, brooches, and earrings, and sometimes sold as Display art. It is not a hard stone (3.5 on the Mohs scale), which means it can scratch easily. Heat and chemicals, like acid, perfume, and hairspray, can also damage it. It’s highly recommended that you use only a damp, soft, non-abrasive cloth to clean it.
Part of Article Abstracted from GIA.EDU
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