The Céline Ring

22K Gold

1.28ct Rhodochrosite from the Sweet Home Mine, CO

While rhodochrosite can be found worldwide, the most famous variety comes from the Sweet Home mine in Alma, Colorado. The area gained fame, briefly, as a source of gold in 1861 and later as a prolific silver mine. Rhodochrosite was discovered two years later and mined in earnest around 1895. When George F. Kunz of Tiffany & Company focused on gem-quality rhodochrosite from Sweet Home, he is said to have deemed it, “the first locality to yield crystals of such magnitude and transparency.”

Several of the most incredible mineral specimens ever found in North America are rhodochrosite crystals. One, called “The Alma Queen,” now lives at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences, and her counterpart, “The Alma King,” resides in a Denver museum. These hunks of beauty are exceedingly rare and notoriously difficult to mine. Sweet Home is high in the steep Mosquito mountains, accessible only two or three months of the year due to weather. Also, most of the mine’s rhodochrosite pockets are either empty or lacking the truly high-quality version of this elusive gem. On top of that, vertical tunnels are needed to mine rhodochrosite, which are physically demanding and costly to create. Have we convinced you yet that she’s a special something?

Currently a size 6. This ring can be resized up or down 1 size.

Approx. 10mm x 5mm

Ready Made.