What you need to know about Zircon: Nature and Classification (Part 1)

When without systematical jewelry knowledge, it is commonly thought that a zircon is an artificial diamond. The reputation of zircon has been blackened by the synthetic cubic zirconia. In fact, zircons have good properties on all aspects. And it is more and more widely used in the jewelry market.

Zircon is a natural gem stone.

The name of Zircon may originate from the Arabic “Zarkun” which means “cinnabar” or “vermilion.” Another thought is that it comes from the ancient Persian word "Zargun", which means "golden yellow"

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Japan calls it "hyacinth stone", which is one of the birthstones in December and symbolizes success.

The first official use of "Zircon" was in 1783 to describe the green zircon crystal from Sri Lanka.

Cubic Zirconium aka CZ, is a kind of synthetic gemstone and is commonly known as "Soviet diamond"! CZ was a revolutionary man-made product in 1974. Its chemical formula is Zirconium dioxide; CZ has been the first choice of diamond substitutes for more than 20 years.

There are three types of Zircon; high type, intermediate type and low (metamict) type.

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Among them, high type zircons have high density, high hardness, stable color, high refractive index, and is a relatively rare gem. Among them, the rich red is the best, with a high price that compares to the good quality spinel. In addition, colorless high-type zircon also has high value.

The natural red zircon without color change is extremely expensive, and its scintillation is also excellent due to birefringence. The natural red zircon is a rare variety in the zircon family, with few large ones.

Low-type zircons have various colors and are very beautiful, but most of them have natural radiation residues, unstable colors, low hardness, density and refractive index, and are rarely worn as gemstones. Some natural low-type zircons can be calcined at high temperature to be made high-type zircons, which are mostly yellow and blue in color.

The characteristics of intermediate zircon are between the above two, which are relatively rare.

Generally speaking, natural zircon refers to red or colorless high-type zircon.

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