Alexandrite
Alexandrite
Alexandrite is the trade name for color-changing chrysoberyl. The special thing about this stone is its color change, pure chrysoberyl shows no or only little color change when the stone is brought from daylight into artificial light, Alexandrite on the other hand does.
The alexandrite is mineralogically a chrysoberyl with a high hardness of 8.5 and a great density of 3.75. Chemically it is the link between the aluminum oxide of the corundum and the beryllium silicate of the beryl, so among other things the emerald. The color in this gemstone comes from iron and chromium. It was first discovered in 1830 in Russia near the city of Ekaterinburg and named “Alexandrite” in honor of Tsar Alexander II. It was considered the national stone of Tsarist Russia, as it combines the two national colors red and green. Its peculiarity: at its best it is green in daylight and red in artificial light. It was discovered in an emerald mine and because of its daylight green color it was initially thought to be an emerald until it was discovered that it was a different mineral. Its color change from greenish-bluish in the case to rich red is not caused by its own coloration, but by the composition of the incident light.
The alexandrite is mineralogically a chrysoberyl with a high hardness of 8.5 and a great density of 3.75. Chemically it is the link between the aluminum oxide of the corundum and the beryllium silicate of the beryl, so among other things the emerald. The color in this gemstone comes from iron and chromium. It was first discovered in 1830 in Russia near the city of Ekaterinburg and named “Alexandrite” in honor of Tsar Alexander II. It was considered the national stone of Tsarist Russia, as it combines the two national colors red and green. Its peculiarity: at its best it is green in daylight and red in artificial light. It was discovered in an emerald mine and because of its daylight green color it was initially thought to be an emerald until it was discovered that it was a different mineral. Its color change from greenish-bluish in the case to rich red is not caused by its own coloration, but by the composition of the incident light.
