East African Ruby Sunstone?

[YourGemologist]

15 October 2009

East African sunstone....and those that claim to be, but are not.
An important consumer alert on Ruby Sunstone and Emerald Sunstone!

A few weeks ago we received an email information request about a claim being made by a Canadian jeweler regarding a new find of East African Ruby Sunstone and Emerald Sunstone. The question was simply, what is this material? Since it was (and is) being sold by this jeweler, Valitutti Jewelers of Toronto Canada on ShopNBC, Amazon.com and their own website, we thought it might be worth a look since this was something not seen before on the market.



We first did some research on the East African sunstone, and we did not have to go very far. Over the past 4 years the ISG has imported over a kilo of this material from a dealer in Jaipur, India for our StudyGems program. We were able to supplement our inventory of study stones with 2 excellent specimens of rough East African sunstone from the good folks at COLORfirst of Tampa, Florida, and finally we were able to obtain market information from our good friend and ISG community member Amar Kotedia in Dar es Salaam , Tanzania .



As you can see from the images above and left this member of the feldspar family is named oligoclase and is unique for the hematite platelets that create the golden colors of the gemstone. (Gems by Webster, 5th Ed. pp 215). The reflection of light from these platelets causes the aventurescence and color of the gemstone. (Photoatlas of Inclusions, Koivula/Gubelin, Vol. 2 pp413)



Below you can view a slide presentation of a journey inside one of these exceptional types of East African oligoclase sunstone.

And at left is a group shot of all of these excellent specimens together. Well, wait a minute. There are two specimens in this picture that don't fit. These are the East African Ruby Sunstone and Emerald Sunstone sold to us by Valitutti Jewelers from Toronto Canada . But there is a problem…..


As you can see at right, we purchased these gemstones set in 14kt gold and diamond rings. Which was sort of expensive for a couple of study specimens, but as always here in the ISG office we purchase our study specimens blind on the open market to insure total transparency in our reports. At a cost of over $1,200.00 for the total for all specimens on this page, we obtained the rings you see at right. Immediately we found problems with the claims made by the seller.

The seller claims that these are “completely natural and not treated in any way whatsoever.” That they are “very rare and the deposit is extremely limited”. He also claims that the Emerald Sunstone is oligoclase and the Ruby Sunstone is labradorite. That these stones are “rare, and until recently almost never available commercially.” And that “you now own a truly authentic East African rare gemstone that most will never see.”

There were three very important issues that immediately came to light before we unset the stones for testing: #1. The red stone had a very strange reaction to fiber optic light transmitted through the side, #2. The red stone was glued into the setting at all four prongs, and #3. Both stones had refractive index ranges in the 1.58 to 1.59, above either oligoclase or labradorite.Our true East African sunstone is oligoclase and has a refractive index in the 1.54 range as expected. But this Ruby Sunstone and Emerald Sunstone offered RI readings that were totally out of the expected range. We also immediately noticed a setting chip on the green stone along with the classic reddish glow in the green that we have seen over and over with the diffusion treated andesine.

After unsetting the stones we confirmed that the red stone had been glued in at every prong (see below left). We reconfirmed the very high RI numbers, and then dropped the stones in the immersion cell to see if we could find any unusual features. We did. What we found was some kind of crud material on both stones. They had a heavy coating of some type that was totally unseen on the stone when set and viewed in ambient daylight. In the immersion cell the crusted material was easily visible across the surface of the stone as you can see below right.

Given the very high RI numbers and the immersion cell reactions, we knew we had something strange. We reconfirmed our RI readings both on our ISG refractometer and the Jemeter Digital 90 reflectance meter. Both confirmed the 1.58 -1.59 RI range. We then took this stone and put it back in our Meiji Techno microscope but this time with overhead fluorescent lighting. The problem quickly showed itself as a coating on the stone. You can see in the image below at the arrow that when we pulled the stone away from the glued prong it actually took some of the coating with it. This allowed us to see this coating and change lighting enough to be able to photograph it as you see below. We also scrathed around the surface with tweezers to try to scratch the surface. We marked it but did not get through it with tweezers, other than the deep scratch you see at the upper right corner. This coating covered both stones and hid much of the tell-tale signs of a diffusion treated andesine that we are used to finding in the immersion cell. So…we dipped them in acetone for about 15 minutes….and what a difference that 15 minutes made.

The first change we noticed was that the refractive index readings for both stones fell back to 1.551 to 1.560, the RI numbers that we have seen over and over for diffusion treated andesine. The next change was through the immersion cell the coating material was totally gone, and we could now easily see the classic color formations of the diffusion treated andesine that we, once again, have seen over and over. The Emerald Sunstone is below left, the Ruby Sunstone is below right, both after cleaning.

Additionally, we could now see some classic inclusions in the red stone as seen below. And once again, the only other feldspar we have found these specific types of inclusions in are feldspars from the Casa Grande mine in Mexico . These are unlike anything in the East African sunstone formations, or Oregon , or anywhere else in the kilos of study specimens we have collected over the past two years. Images of the inclusions from the Ruby Sunstone are below. They exactly match images we have from the Casa Grande material from Mexico.

We do not know exactly what Mr. Michael Valitutti, GG is up to. We do know that our previous report of him being an AGTA member was incorrect. His use of the AGTA logo on his website is a misrepresentation.

We also know that he is selling this material through ShopNBC, Amazon.com and other locations including his own website from which we purchased our Ruby Sunstone and Emerald Sunstone.

We also know that this material he claims to be East African sunstone is nothing like the genuine East African sunstone that we have collected in our office direct from the source.

But the most disturbing part of this to us is that previous to this finding the refractive index of the diffusion treated andesine made for an easy separation of that material from the natural Plush Sunstone from Oregon . This coating, whatever it is made from, is clearly an effort to deceive jewelers and gemologists because the coating causes a much higher than normal RI reading, and is virtually invisible without serious inspection of the stone.

We now know that this coating is being done. By whom? We don’t know. But it is out there and the intent is clearly to deceive. So if you get an Emerald Sunstone or Ruby Sunstone, chances are you need to clean it very well with acetone, or check it very carefully.

But as far as Mr. Valitutti’s claim that he is selling an extremely rare and valuable East African Ruby Sunstone and Emerald Sunstone…..we don’t buy it. Well, I guess we did buy it. But we don’t buy the claims he is making. The unfortunate part is that we hope others start questioning this claim before ShopNBC, Amazon.com and others end up like Jewelry Television and Direct Shopping Network with class actions law suits.

And Mr. Valitutti, if this East African Ruby Sunstone is so rare and valuable...why are you gluing it into the mounting?

We challenge Mr. Valitutti to prove the source of this material in East Africa , and to prove his claims made in his promotional materials. He is making the claims, it is his responsibility to prove them to consumers. Don’t be afraid to ask him.




OH! And one more thing we do know. The real East African sunstone is a very pretty gemstone, it is very unusual, and it is very affordable. It's also all natural and untreated.

One of the truly unique gemstones on the market today.

And Michael Valitutti, GG is not selling it.



Robert James FGA, GG

President, International School of Gemology

If you are having problems getting the images in this report, please visit us in the ISG Forums where you will find this page complete with photographs without the email download problem.

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©2009 International School of Gemology . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

All images are taken using the ISG Student Reference Collection of gemstones in the ISG office. We do urge and support sharing of this information in its entirety, with copyright notices intact, to others who are interested in the study of gemology. Jeweler’s Associations are welcome to distribute to your members.






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[Morning Dove]

Oh my! Good sleuthing, RJ

[Gringa Gems]

RJ, in the case of the non-glued-in stone, would it have been possible to heat the stone until the coating vaporized, collect the gas, and subject it to gas chromatographic analysis?

[Crystal Star]

Are you starting to feel like once you've seen one of these things, you've seen them all RJ?

Wow! Great question Gringa!! I like the way you think.

[Jamey S.]

Nice job RJ! Truly pathetic at the extent these people will go to unload this stuff! . Do they not realize they are cutting their own throats in the long run!?

[Gringa Gems]

RJ, have you thought of doing a second edition of your book (complete with a DVD for these great gif files) -- that last photo here is just wonderful!

[VP2006]

See here for an edjumacation on ALL the "technical scientific terms" of the various "gems" he sells.

http://valituttijewelry.com/

Nice Work Robert!!

[Dreamcatcher3]

Thanks VP2006
looked up Ruby & Emerald Sunstone on his site.
don't think I want him to teach me.

[Crystal Star]

Heh, I'm wondering who taught HIM because apparently they either did a lousy job, or they plumb forgot to teach him ethics.