Treasure Hunting

Now, this batch of moonstone should polish up really nicely.  Moonstone is a variety of orthoclase (some people even interchange the two words freely even though that’s not completely correct) so it comes in at about a 6 on the Mohs hardness scale.  It has a beautiful opalescent look to it that can really be enhanced if it’s cut and polished nicely.

If you have moonstone jewelry, you do have to take a little care with it to make sure that it doesn’t lose its luster.  Don’t leave it exposed to too much bright light.  It can also react badly to a lot of chemicals so you probably don’t want to wear your moonstones while cleaning or whatnot.  (Do real people wear jewelry when cleaning?  I’m getting an image of June Cleaver in my head here.)

Probably the most well-known location of moonstone is Sri Lanka - that’s where this batch is from.  It can also be found in both the United States and South America, though.