Deep beneath the Earth's surface, gemstones slowly form, produced by the grinding tectonic forces or nursed from fiery magmatic activity. These gems, while pure of color and hue, are the product of impurities in the surrounding rocks, staining them into incredible shades of red, blues, purples, and more.

This new collection from Mini Museum brings together out entire gemstone collection under one display. The Gem Medley comes complete with emerald, opal, bismuth, sapphire, amethyst, pearl and ruby. This is a fantastic collection that shows off the diversity of gemstones produced by our planet.

Each specimen collection is enclosed in an acrylic specimen jar with a removable top which arrives in a handsome, glass-topped riker box case measuring 4x3x1". It includes an informational card that serves as certificate of authenticity.

More information on each gemstone can be found below!

Emerald is formed when the otherwise colorless crystal beryl is infused with chromium impurities, producing beautiful shades of green. Our raw emeralds are sourced from Colombia's Muzo region, where hydrothermal activity promotes the rapid heating of mineral-infused water, producing these stunning gems.

Opal is unlike most gemstones in that it does not have the typical single crystalline lattice structure. Instead, opal is a collection of very tiny spheres of silicon-dioxide which are packed together and compressed. When light passes through these spheres, it refracts into incredible patterns. Our rough opals date to the Cretaceous Period when Central Australia was home to an enormous inland sea, known to science as the Eromanga Basin.

Bismuth is known from its staircase-like shape produced by an effect called hoppering. During its formation, bismuth's atoms are attracted to the edges of the growing atomic structure, building off into strange shapes. These bismuth rainbow crystals are the product of oxidization during cooling, forming a thin outer layer that distorts light waves as they pass through.

Sapphire is the product of corundum crystals being infused with metals seeping into the material's aluminum oxide base. Like other gemstones, corundum is clear until the arrival of titanium turns it into sapphire, while the presence of chromium transforms it into its twin, ruby. Our rough sapphires come from Myanmar’s Mogok Metamorphic Belt, also known as the "Valley of Gems."

Amethyst is made of quartz and forms when the gemstone's silica is replaced by trivalent iron. This happens when nuclear decay in nearby rocks releases radiation, the irradiation distorting the gemstone's lattice structure to refract light. Our Brazilian amethysts come from Rio Grande do Sul, one of the most prolific sources of this gemstone.

Pearls form when a foreign object enters a mollusk, such as a grain of sand or a parasite. The mollusk deposits layer upon layer of aragonite and calcite which together are referred to as nacre. While not formed by geologic processes, pearls are still classified as organic gemstones.

Our cultured pearls come from a freshwater farm on the Tennessee River. Operated for decades by the same family, the methods they employ are used by modern pearl farms around the world to create a sustainable harvest of one of the world's natural treasures.

Ruby holds a special place among the five cardinal gemstones. It is rarer, more durable, and more expensive than a comparable diamond. These precious stones have been valued throughout history, mined in Myanmar’s Mogok Stone Tract, Thailand’s Chanthaburi province near Cambodia, all across Asia, and beyond.

Traders took rough rubies along the Silk Road, spreading their glamor far and wide for great profit. Even today, rubies hold significant value. In 2015, the 25.5-carat Sunrise Ruby sold for $30,300,000 USD, making it the world’s most expensive colored gemstone.

Rubies like these can be found in mountain ranges like the Himalayas and in southeastern Africa, the gem produced by the massive tectonic shifts that produced these orogenies. Beyond their beauty, gems like rubies can be used to speculate on our planet's prehistoric past: a peak into the geological forces that are always shifting just below our feet. Each of these rubies are a testament to the incredible forces of the Earth's crust, and the beauty that these upheavals can create. These particular rubies are from the Mozambique belt within the East African Orogeny.