Kunzite
Kunzite
Kunzite is a pink to lilac colored gemstone, a variety of spodumene with the color coming from minor to trace amounts of manganese.
Kunzite is one of the newer gems to be found. In fact, it just a little over one hundreds years old. Kunzite, while new to man is intensely beautiful, feminine and great for making ornamental jewelry. Kunzite comes in many colors, some of them more popular than others. For instance, Kunzite can come in a beautiful and intense pink or violet. It also comes frequently as colorless. Kunzite can be found with other mineral inclusions such as Hiddenite which makes the Kunzite look green or yellow. Other colors include gray and in some rare cases blue.
Kunzite was discovered at the Pala Chief Mine near San Diego, California and named after gemologist GF Kunz, who first described it after the turn of the twentieth century. kunzite is still a very young gemstone. It was not until 1902 that the New York jeweller and gemstone specialist George Frederick Kunz (1856 – 1932) became the first person to give a comprehensive description of this stone, which had just been discovered in California. And since newly discovered gemstones are usually given the name of their discoverer or patron, this new pale pink discovery was called ‘kunzite’.
Kunzite is one of the few minerals to have the attribute of pleochroism. Pleochroism means that the mineral can two or more colors present, usually depending on how you look at the gemstone. For instance, Kunzite in many cases can be found being pink, violet and colorless. In other cases, it can be yellow, green and colorless.
Wear kunzite to be blessed with good fortune. Its soft pastel color symbolize purity. It can also be a sign of new life and it is sometimes regarded as a symbol for pregnancy.