The Rarest Gemstones in The World

Taaffeite

 

Taaffeitte


Taaffeite is an incredibly rare gemstone named after the gemologist who discovered it in 1945, Richard Taaffeite. Interestingly the stone was already cut and polished in a Dublin jewellers when Richard Taaffeite identified its uniqueness and it was discovered to be an entirely original mineral previously never recognised. The stone was sent to a London laboratory to be tested and its status as newly discovered gemstone was scientifically confirmed. Taaffeite is the only gemstone to be discovered as a cut stone. Up until this point most pieces of taaffeite had been incorrectly judged as spinel which has a very similar chemical makeup to taaffeite. A 1951 chemical and X-Ray analysis discovered taaffeite to be the first gemstone to contain both magnesium and beryllium as principle components. Taaffeite is extremely rare and has so far only been discovered in Sri Lanka and Tanzania. Taaffeite comes in a range of colours including lilac, green, blue and red or colourless. Most common is lilac, whilst red is the rarest colour of Taaffeite.


Worth up to $2,500 per carat

Painite

 

Painite

 


Named after the British gem collector Arthur Charles Davy Pain, who discovered the gemstone in Myanmar in the 1950’s. In 2005 The Guinnes Book of World Records named painite as the world’s rarest gemstone mineral. Up until 2001 only three crystals of painite were known to exist. Whilst more painite has been discovered it remains extremely rare.

Worth up to $60,000 per carat.


Grandidierite

 

Grandidierite


Grandidierite is an extremely rare mineral named after French naturalist Alfred Grandidier who discovered it in 1902. This precious gemstone was discovered in the cliffs of Andrahomana in Madagascar. Gem quality grandidierite is extremely rare and large clear grandidierite is almost non existent.


Quality stones are worth up to $20,000 per carat.


Red Diamond

 

The Moussaieff Red Diamond


A red diamond is exactly as it sounds, a diamond gemstone that is red in colour. Due to the scarcity of red diamond they are usually only ever found as less than one carat. The largest red diamond is The Fancy Red Moussaiff Red Diamond which is 5.11 carats. Most of the worlds red diamonds come from Kimberly in Western Australia but they have also been found in Africa and Brazil.

The Moussaieff Red sold for almost $8 million in 2001 meaning it was worth $1.6 million per carat.