jasong Posted April 21, 2017 Share Posted April 21, 2017 I think you really need to do a hardness test though before drawing any final conclusions because it could be a few different things. It looks more like beryl to me than sapphire, but impossible to tell from a photo it could easily be either of them. Also, it should be notably heavier than a piece of quartz in your hand if it's sapphire, beryl not so much. Either way if it's blue beryl or sapphire then it's collectible even if not gem quality. It has good crystal structure and it's twinned. Also, location is everything, even though Indiana is likely not the source, a collector there may be willing to pay more for it because it was found there. I'd say it's a $50 piece anyways, especially to the right person, maybe even double that. Some of the common black tourmaline I found was selling for a fairly decent price just because it was from a completely unknown location. You'd be surprised (as I was) how many people collect very specific types of gems/minerals and try to fill their collections with all different type locations - sometimes the location is worth more than the sample...especially if it's rare and you have proof of where it came from. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Lunn Posted June 7, 2017 Share Posted June 7, 2017 I think Chris nailed it. Here is a picture of corundum from Brazil. As he pointed out the specific gravity of corundum is 4 and is easy to check. Weigh your specimen twice. First all alone. Second put a glass of water on a scale. Then dangle the specimen tied to a thread in the water. The increase in the weight of the glass of water is the weight of the water displaced by the specimen. The ratio of the two weights will give you the specific gravity. Let us know how it comes out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tvanwho Posted July 31, 2017 Author Share Posted July 31, 2017 Cool Australian commercial sapphire mining video...looks like they are using gold placer mining type of equipment plus eyeballing...does anybody know if sapphires glow under a UV blacklight for night time prospecting? I know some diamonds glow blue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tvanwho Posted July 31, 2017 Author Share Posted July 31, 2017 another cool Gem Video,too bad we can't metal detect gemstones.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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