Stone of the month:

Nomenclature
Morganite is the noble pink variety of Beryl. Its discovery is a fairly recent one. The American gemmologist George F. Kunz, PhD whose name is father to the Kunzite in 1910 first described the occurrence of this mineral in Madagascar. He named it after one of his supporters the gemstone collector and famous banker John Pierpont Morgan. The New York Jeweler Tiffany quickly started an advertising campaign with the new discovery in his jewelry collection upon which Morganite quickly gained popularity in the U.S.

Color
Morganite comes in a whole spectrum of tones from apricot to salmon with or without a touch of orange to a pure pink that sometimes shows a hue of purple or lavender. There are light to very saturated pastel colors. An interesting phenomenon is that drop shapes tend to show the color best as it concentrates in the tip of the gem.

Qualities
Morganite like Aquamarine is usually cut eye clean. The more intense the color the higher the price. The apricot/salmon colors are prevailing and popular. Pink tones are quite rare and fetch higher prices.

Origins
After the initial discovery in Madagascar Morganite was also found in many other regions like Brazil, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia and later also Mozambic, Zimbabwe and Mexico. Today most stones come from the area Mozambic, Sambia, Malawi and from Nigeria.