Rhodochrosite 0.40 ct – Fancy Cut, Colorado

This rhodochrosite weighs 0.40 ct and comes from the Sweet Home Mine in Colorado, USA. It is worked in a fancy cut and is untreated — colour and clarity are as they were laid down in the rough material. Like every stone from our workshop it is a unique piece, available only once.

The fancy cut follows the shape the rough piece dictated — a parallelogram with calm step facets. With a material this soft and this ready to cleave, every additional cut is a risk; we therefore take the outline that leads to the goal without detours and let the facets show the colour as a surface.

About rhodochrosite

Rhodochrosite is manganese carbonate, in German also called Manganspat. Most pieces in the trade are opaque and banded in pink and white, come from Argentina and are worked into cabochons or objects. Transparent, facetable material is something else entirely — and very rare.

The most famous source for it is the Sweet Home Mine near Alma in Colorado, a former silver mine that was kept running in the 1990s specifically for its rhodochrosite crystals. Since its closure in 2004 nothing more has come from there; what circulates stems from old stock.

For the cutter, rhodochrosite is one of the most demanding species of all: Mohs hardness 3.5 to 4, perfect cleavage in three directions and sensitivity to acids. A faceted rhodochrosite is therefore first and foremost a collector's stone. It is not made for a ring worn every day, but all the more so for a pendant or a display case.

Specifications

• Stone type: rhodochrosite
• Weight: 0.40 ct
• Origin: Sweet Home Mine, Colorado, USA
• Cut shape: fancy
• Treatment: none, untreated
• Cutting: our own workshop
• Location: Austria
• Availability: unique piece, one only

Further single pieces from the same material can be found under Rhodochrosite, rare species beyond it under More gemstones. Would you like your own rough stone cut, or an existing stone reworked? We take that on in our workshop — more under Services.