Gold Sheen Sapphire is different to other precious gemstones, while three of the ‘4 C’s’ – cut and carat size and colour, apply, clarity is all but irrelevant.  In some respects, Gold Sheen Sapphire is similar to opal, it is an opaque gem where the colour is a feature of different types of mineral inclusion. However Gold Sheen Sapphire also retains the properties of sapphire, and often the predominant colour is blue, clear, or fancy sapphire.

These are some tips of what to look for and what to avoid when buying Gold Sheen Sapphire:

• Surface Flaws – the lustre of Gold Sheen Sapphire is a major factor in the beauty of the gem.  Stones should have an eye clean surface.  Comparing two similar pieces with a 10x loupe will show that the better the surface the greater the appeal of the gem.

• Structural Flaws – as with any gemstone, cracks through the stone can cause problems with durability and jewellery setting.  However it is important not to mistake geometric and inclusion features of the gem as a structural flaw.  Generally this is obvious though, with closer inspection.

• Asterism – All Gold Sheen Sapphire cabs will display some degree of asterism.  It will vary from very weak to strong, but it will be there.  Strong aterism is quite rare.

• Vary the light – look at the gem under warm and cool light, and in daylight if possible.  I am not sure if this should be classed as ‘colour change’, but the visual difference under different lighting types will be quite pronounced.

• Geometric Patterns – One, if not the, most beautiful feature of Gold Sheen Sapphire are the naturally occurring geometric patterns.  These are most evident as parallel lines, partial or full hex patterns, often interlaced with clear or coloured sapphire.  These patterns made every Gold Sheen Sapphire absolutely unique, like a highly prominent fingerprint.  Partial hex patterns are rare, and the fuller the hex, the rarer the occurrence.  Full hex patterns are very, very rare, occurring in less than one in 100,000 pieces.

• Craze lines – not to be mistaken with structural flaws, craze lines are small fractured that are usually between 70 and 120 degrees to the crystal growth lines.  They have no structural impact on the gem.

• Aurora Effect – in addition to the sheen effect, some stones will have a combination of green and blue colour that will change as light plays across the gem  Tanzim Khan (the discoverer of Gold Sheen Sapphire) calls this an ‘Aurora’ effect, because the colour effect is not unlike the Aurora Borealis.  I am not sure if this is a new feature or a type of iridescence, but in any event., stones that exhibit this are very rare.  You can see an example of the effect in this Youtube video – https://youtu.be/XCjCiT3q2TM

• Colours – The primary colours of corundum in Gold Sheen Sapphire are blue, white, yellow, green, orange, red.  The metallic colours are gold, brass, bronze and copper.  The following table lists the colours and their occurrence:

One thing I have been trying to get right for a while is how to capture the beauty of Gold Sheen Sapphire in a photo. I have tried many combinations of light and camera settings, with a very good digital SLR, and yet in some cases just the camera on my smartphone seems to take better pictures.

Capturing the inherent beauty of Gold Sheen Sapphire is one thing, but then describing it is another. Using the standard gemology grading we only have ‘brown’ to describe the prominent colour. There is no descriptor for the metallic gold, bronze, copper and brass, not for the colours of metallic blue, greens orange and yellow that often appear as secondary and tertiary colours.

And then, how to describe the geometric patterns and craze lines within the gem? Which to me are by far it’s most appealing aspect.

Tanzim Khan, the discoverer of Gold Sheen Sapphire, describes the complex patterns as taking you on a journey. Indeed it does, as you gaze into the stone you see ever more richness and beauty that emerge from the depths. The 3D effect of the inclusions is unlike anything else.

Like ruby, Gold Sheen Sapphire is at its best under warm light, in the mornings and evenings. Yet under direct, cool light, aspects within the gem can be seen that were otherwise hidden, and vivid blues can emerge in strong white light that make it look like sapphire set in a cage of bronze.

I have been tracking the price of Gold Sheen Sapphire since I first started to buy it in 2014. Recently the street price has seen a dramatic increase, certainly due to its increasing popularity with designers and investors.

From the very start Tanzim Khan (the discoverer of Gold Sheen Sapphire) has been maintaining an impressive effort to provide information and education about this new variety of corundum. I have made a fact sheet available on my website and I am working on a grading system that I am developing in conjunction with Tanzim and Gemological Labs interested in participating.

This is the two year price history of Gold Sheen Sapphire:

Some explanation about the chart.

Currently we have 3 grades for GSS:

Grade 1 – No surface defects, no structural defects, or ‘very rare’
Grade 2 – Eye clean surface, no structural defects, or ‘rare’
Grade 3 – Minor surface defects, minor structural defects. or ‘common’

Anything less than Grade 3 is not available for sale and either discarded or re-cut.

“Buy” is the wholesale price for Grade 3 stones in large quantities over 10,000 carats

“Sell” is the price offered for sale from retail or trade fare for single stones or small sales.

“Street” is the negotiated price for small quantities of stones of various grades.

Gold Sheen Sapphire can also be ‘unique’, which are typically collectors pieces over 50 carats in size. The price for these can vary from $100 per carat to simply ‘no price’ since it only depends on what the seller and buyer are willing to negotiate. Some examples of wholesale stones in calibrated sizes are on my website.

The good news is that for jewelry designers and retailers, the wholesale price of Gold Sheen Sapphire has not caught up to the street price yet.

I am launching a special promotion for Gold Sheen Sapphire. The goal Tanzim and I have is to make Gold Sheen Sapphire famous, and to do that we want jewelry designers to feature the gem in their work. There have already been some industry award winning designs, and we want to bring this unique gemstone into the mainstream where it rightly belongs.

This is the promotion I am offering on my website:

• Hand selection of stone from rough to your specification
• Rare and very rare features at a single price
• Fine cutting to your design specification 0.1mm tolerance
• Locked in buy price for 12 months
• We will list your design jewelry for sale on our website, or link to the listing on your site, and promote it through social media at no cost to you.  You will receive 100% of the sale price.

The price of Gold Sheen Sapphire has risen by 100% in the last 12 month. Common grade gems were selling at $20 per carat last year and now are $40 per carat, and I have seen rarer stones that were $50 per carat last year now being bough for $200 and more.

So first we are offering a very good price, cut to any specification the designer wants. We can offer even better pricing for stones already cut, and examples of those are in the wholesale section of my website – http://sjwgems.com/wholesale/gold-sheen-sapphire-wholesale/.

Second, locking in the price for designers lets them have the confidence that the price they buy for today will be the same for the next 12 months.

To give an example of the lengths we will go to to provide the exact specification required, we have just completed an order for a jewelry designer in New York for 5,000 carats. To meet their requirement we sliced over 400kg of rough to find the exact match they were looking for.

I recently saw the most spectacular Gold Sheen Sapphire that has been discovered so far. This gem has a pure gold luster under all light conditions – quite rare for Gold Sheen, which usually varies from gold to copper to bronze as light play across it. It also has a, so far, unique yellow sapphire ‘window’ through the stone.

The latest issue of TNJ Colors magazine features an article on Gold Sheen Sapphire.

Gold Sheen Sapphire Article In TNJ Colors Vol 3 2016 by Barbara Wheat

More information on Gold Sheen Sapphire available on my website – sjwgems.com