Phenakite Value, Price, and Jewelry Information

Comments

Phenakites can show pale yellow, pink, and brown colors, as well as no color. (You'll seldom see very rare red gems cut from Russian material). With little dispersion, these gems hadn't generated much excitement beyond collectors of unusual minerals. However, the surge of New Age interest in crystals in the 1990s caught up with this stone. With or without mystical auras, exceptional hardness (7.5 - 8) and indistinct cleavage make this a good, if unusual, jewelry stone.

Recently, gemological laboratories have confirmed cat's eye gems cabbed from phenakites from Madagascar and Sri Lanka.

This gem belongs to the phenakite mineral group as the beryllium analogue. This very rare element occurs in emerald and alexandrite, too. The gem willemite is the zinc analogue.

Synthetics

Labs have synthesized this mineral, starting with a seed of willemite, no less. However, you're more likely to encounter quartz gems either erroneously or deliberately presented as phenakites. As rough, this mineral can live up to its etymology. In at least one case, near-colorless phenakite rough was submitted for gemological analysis as suspected diamond. Despite outward similarities, including trigon-like features, these gems have very different optical and physical properties. For example, phenakite has birefringence and a lower specific gravity than diamond.

When found in emeralds as inclusions, phenakites themselves commonly indicate synthetic origins.

Radiation treatments can turn colorless phenakites yellow-brown.

Sources

Gem-quality sources include:

• United States: Pala County, California; Colorado (Pike's Peak area); Lords Hill, Maine; New Hampshire; Virginia (crystals up to 2 inches across).
• Habachtal, Austria: small gemmy colorless or yellowish crystals.
• San Miguel de Paracicaba, Brazil: large colorless crystals, often clean and cuttable.
• Russia: reddish color gems.
• Czech Republic; France; Madagascar; Myanmar; Klein Spitzkopje, Namibia; Nigeria; Kragero, Norway; Slovakia; Sri Lanka; Switzerland; Usugara district, Tanzania.

Stone Sizes

Faceted gemstones normally range between 1 and 5 carats in size.

Crystals up to 5 x 10 x 18 cm have been found, although usually heavily flawed. The largest known rough was a pebble found in Sri Lanka. Weighing in at 1,470 carats, it cut a 569 carat clean gem and several smaller stones. The large stone has many needle-like inclusions.

• Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC): 22.2 (colorless, Russia); 21.9 (colorless, Brazil).
• National Museums of Canada (Ottawa, Ontario): 23.41 (colorless, Brazil).
• Private Collection: 21.21, 19.17 (colorless, Russia).

Care

These gems require no special care. See our Gemstone Jewelry Cleaning Guide for care recommendations.

Here's a video showing a full view of that finished 35.95-ct phenakite. Video © Dan Stair Custom Gemstones. Used with permission.