On the AGTA show’s opening day, we were on hand as Gary Bowersox and Kathleen Kolt-Bowersox donated an extraordinary cat’s-eye aquamarine to Dr. Jeffrey Post, mineralogist and curator-in-charge of gems and minerals at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (figure 1).
The 586.43 ct untreated transparent light greenish blue aquamarine with a sharp cat’s-eye is from the Pech Valley pegmatite mine in Afghanistan. The rough (figure 2, left) weighed approximately 7,700 ct and was kept for 15 years before it was finally cut in 2017 by Rohitha Perera in Sri Lanka (figure 2, right). The Bowersoxes have several other cut gems from this find, with the next largest weighing in at 541.96 ct.
On the AGTA show’s opening day, we were on hand as Gary Bowersox and Kathleen Kolt-Bowersox donated an extraordinary cat’s-eye aquamarine to Dr. Jeffrey Post, mineralogist and curator-in-charge of gems and minerals at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (figure 1).
The 586.43 ct untreated transparent light greenish blue aquamarine with a sharp cat’s-eye is from the Pech Valley pegmatite mine in Afghanistan. The rough (figure 2, left) weighed approximately 7,700 ct and was kept for 15 years before it was finally cut in 2017 by Rohitha Perera in Sri Lanka (figure 2, right). The Bowersoxes have several other cut gems from this find, with the next largest weighing in at 541.96 ct.