2.50ct 8.3x7.3mm Rhodolite Garnet

A definite favorite - rhodolite garnet, aka wine garnet.  From Madagascar. Garnet is another gemstone that comes in a variety of beautiful colors, and is most often has wonderful clarity.  According to the GIA:  All garnets have essentially the same crystal structure, but they vary in chemical composition. There are more than twenty garnet categories, called species, but only five are commercially important as gems. Those five are pyrope, almandine (also called almandite), spessartine, grossular (grossularite), and andradite.  Red garnets have a long history, but modern gem buyers can pick from a rich palette of garnet colors: greens, oranges, pinkish oranges, deeply saturated purplish reds, and even some blues.