It's been wonderful to work in the gem and jewelry business since 1984, much of it as a Graduate Gemologist. Since 2006 it's been my honor to facet and share Mason County topaz with America. I've seen a lot of topaz in that time. Gem faceters and rockhounds have shown me their topaz collections, and sometimes I bought them. Ranchers quietly showed me what they've found on their land. I've studied the collections of Mason County topaz in museums.
Then some scientists approached me, and I got to share all the years of knowledge I had gathered about topaz from Texas. We spent a year studying and comparing Texas topaz with topaz from lots of locations from around the world. We learned a lot. While there was no test developed to prove it's origin, we learned Texas topaz has unique characteristics, which it shares with only a few other locations. All of this was published in Gems & Gemology, winter 2023.
What the scientists, rockhounds, Texas gem faceters agree on, is that our natural blue topaz is rare, and other colors even more rare. My experience is the same. The vast majority of topaz from Texas is colorless. That rarity is what drives the value of natural blue Mason County topaz. Most blue Texas topaz is pale blue in color. As the color deepens in saturation, the rarity goes up very quickly. At this time we are beginning to offer saturations of color we have not offered before. The prices reflect other rare natural color topaz prices in the world market.