Hi everyone,
My name is Ella and I recently opened my business in selling faceted colored gemstones.
I got an extremely rare faceted Dragon Garnets, 3.48 ct and 4.35 ct. The stones are known by their sensitivity to different light sources (they change color in different light conditions), and florescence under UV light.
To my knowledge, they are rare in general, but extremely rare above 1ct, what makes them a high collecting/museum level. Would appreciate your opinion and help with answering the questions:
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Should I sell them, or keep them as an investment? Today, only few sources are available in the world, but maybe some new sources will be discovered in the future, we can never know.
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If I will decide to eventually sell, what platform will you recommend to use?
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Each stone was sent to GIA for certification, but the main attractive factors - light sensitivity and florescence - are not mentioned. Should I resend them and add it? Any specific comments/ test to request?
Thank you for reading and help,
inviting you all to follow my business page on Instagram- Flintstone.gems, and connect .
Hi,
Welcome to the community! Those are beautiful stones. Hopefully you will get some good feedback from members of the community. I wish you the best of luck with your buisness.
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Thank you Daniel, I appreciate it very much.
Hi Ella,
As @DanielB66512 stated, welcome to the community! You have a very cool name for your company! Awesome!
There are some questions about the name Dragon Garnet ā link to original siteā¦
It seems that is is a trademark (to be published or finalized), to represent a specific type of color-changing garnet, which is being claimed by a collaboration of several individuals. However, a species of any type of stone based on its discovery / locality, usually takes on a regional namesake for the original mine locality, in this case, Tanzania. That is not being done here, so I am a little wary.
I have not found any reference at GIA or other Labs that acknowledge or recognize the name. Which is not uncommon, since none of the labs can validate a trademark or registered name due to liabilities. This is common practice and for example; certain patented faceting techniques for diamonds, such as Hearts on Fire. The (R) is a registered title representing the patented faceting. GIA reports for such stones will indicate a laser etched inscription, if present, on the stoneās girdle. But they typically do not promote the title.
This is my personal opinion so, it must be taken with a grain of salt: I would keep them as a specimen in my collection, until such time that the trademarked name becomes more infused in the industry, and then reassess its value. The name has only been publicly visible since 2022ā¦ a very short time. Your company could be up against litigation for false valuation, if the purchaser feels they have been duped because of a failed trademark.
Cheers!
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Hello Ella, there is currently no broadly accepted grading system for colored gems, only for diamonds. Since fluorescence can detract or enhance a diamondās beauty, it is included on a GIA Diamond Grading Report.
A GIA Colored Stone ID Report will only describe whether the stone is natural or synthetic, ID type of gemstone and any detectable treatments.
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Ales Krivanek, owner of Ravenstein Gem Company. He is a trusted vendor at the Tucson Gem Show, GIA contributor, publishes gemstone buying and investment guides and very knowledgeable about the Dragon Garnet.
RAVENSTEIN GEM CO., LLC
Best of luck!
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Asking him is a great idea, thank you so much.
Thank you for your detailed answer, you are so kind.
Regarding the name, I donāt find the name problematic, because itās not the real nameā¦ I wonāt necessarily use it to sell. I can, if I want, mention it as a note that some call it that wayā¦
Can you send me your Instagram account to follow? Will be happy to meet.
Can you send me your Instagram account to follow? Will be happy to meet you.
Can you send me your Instagram account to follow? Will be happy to meet you.
Unfortunately, I do not have any social media. Otherwise I would be happy to.
Hello Ella,
Welcome here if this is your first postā¦IDK because I donāt frequent this forum as much as formerlyā¦re: Dragon Garnet, you donāt give any details about the typical color change or color shift of these. Both terms are used and some will not call a gem color change unless it changes from one color, such as red, to another totally different color, such as green or blueā¦going from one hue to another that is close on the color wheel is called color shift by these folks. One could also appropriate and old joke about diamond grading and say it is color change if you are selling and color shift if you are buying.
I do have some experience with color shift garnets that change from one shade of red or pink to another near color like salmon or violet. Iāve seen or heard of specimens like this from Tz and Malawi and similar may come from other African localities. If itās rare and costs more than $200/ct in a ring sized stone, I would love to know about it, because I have a parcel here someone sold me that will cut 30 stones over a carat and a few almost as big as what you have. Also a friend in Africa offered me another parcel which may be color shift recently. HTH. -royjohn
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Hi!
My stones are shifting color as you described, but more importantly, they florescent under UV light (short and long). IDK what stones you got itās worth checking.
Ella,
Further reading has provided some insight to the name and is directly linked to Ravenstein as @JCBellGG pointed out.
I must rewrite my initial and very doubtful statement that GIA would not promote the trademark; to one of GIA being involved in some initial investigative work on the pyrope-spessartine material found in Africa, provided by Ravenstein in Tests and Articles. Stumbled across that one while reading the original G & G published periodical.
Everyday is a good example of learning something newā¦ especially when given the rare opportunity to actually sit down and read more than few scant news-bits, so I must apologize for the incorrect information I posted earlier.
Cheers!
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Welcome, I am also pretty new here and I hope you find the forum as great as I do.
I have two of these, I think. I got them in Sumatra, but I donāt know where they are from originally (do you know where yours are from or where they can be found)? Do they change from red to purple? mine do, with different hues appearing under different light sources/spectrums (fluorescent vs LED vs incandescent vs natural. The effect is quite notable.
I donāt know the value, but iām curious what you learn. One thing that was kinda cool for me was to shine a flashlight from above them while, leaving the stone in a fixed place and moving the light around. The faceting on mine are quite remarkable and the effect is surreal (in a cool way).
Thatās probably an odd comment but I figured iād share, as, like I said, I found it cool to see. Hereās a still from the vid I took.
Thank you for you comment, I appreciate it very much. Every day is a new aportunity to learn, this is the definition of success in my option.
Hi Paul nice to meet you.
My stones are originally from Tanzania.
From the pictures you added, Iām afraid it doesnāt look like Dragon Garnets.
You can visit the website https://www.dragongarnet.com/ to get some more information about them.
Ha, that doesnāt surprise me that I got that wrong, Iām not an expert. Any idea what mine might be?
Whatever mine are, the color change is very similar to the ones on that web site. It is hard for me to get an accurate SG with my crappy scale and very small stones (these are 1.6 and 2.2ct), but the best I can tell, the SG is roughly 2.58 and they are very hard, my notes say they scratch glass and a ruby wont scratch them easily (but the ruby part could be an error on my part). The RI is around 1.54, but my testing gear is not high quality so maybe thatās not quite right.
Iām guessing maybe a beryl of some kind or morganite, but the color change seems odd to me.
Hi Ella,
I am new to IGS too so welcome!
I found an article from there GIA. The name is marketed online from the Ravenstein Gem Co. as Dragon Garnet. This garnet comes from the Lindi Region of Tanzania.
Keep them for investment.
I would try the AGL for testing. I think this garnet group is too new to be listed in the comments as changing color in SW and LW UV light on the GIA report. Most likely they are listed as Malaya Garnet which a lot have a mild florescent change in UV light.
I would email them and ask why they are not listing the florescent color change in the comments. I hope this helps.
Here is the article mentioned in the GIA below:
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