Our Current Turquoise Stock
Our turquoise jewelry supply comes from domestic mines in the United States. They are mostly old stock from the 1950’s through 1980’s that my father had personally mined, purchased, traded and acquired over the decades he was active in his lapidary work. Our turquoise jewelry is made of all natural and untreated turquoise (highest quality) unless it is specifically stated otherwise in its description.
We hope to offer an opportunity to sell some turquoise (unaltered and stabilized for buyers in the coming months. If interested, please inquire within.
Origins of our Turquoise stock:
Cripple Creek Mine (Colorado):
Cripple Creek Turquoise was originally found primarily as a by-product of gold mining. This is a very hard stone with color ranging from light and dark blues with brown matrix, and some rare golden limonite matrix to blue-green.
Cripple Creek is one of only a few domestic Turquoise mines still active today, with very limited production.
Ithica Mine (Mineral Park Mining District, Arizona):
Ithaca peak turquoise is typically a sky blue color but is specifically known for having heavier pyrite inclusions. The material can go from a "Robin's Egg" blue all the way to a deep Lapis blue.
Morenci (Arizona):
It’s color ranges from light blue to high blue in color. Morenci is known to have an unusual matrix of irregular black pyrite, or fool’s gold; when polished, the pyrite often looks like silver. It also is sometimes webbed in a darker shade of blue, called water webbed.
Morenci turquoise is well known because it was one of the first American turquoises to come on the modern market, and is often difficult to obtain because the mine is now depleted, making it an exceedingly collectible turquoise.
Sleeping Beauty (Arizona):
Sleeping Beauty turquoise is world renown for its solid, light blue color with no matrix. Sleeping Beauty turquoise is the favorite of Zuni Pueblo lapidaries and silversmiths for the purity in color. This mine has been closed since 2012 but was one of the largest in North America. A great amount of this turquoise was exported to Italy & France alone.
At its peak, the Sleeping Beauty mine yielded only 4% of natural, unaltered turquoise. A high percentage was enhanced, a process that only added value to the lesser grade Sleeping Beauty turquoise. After the mine closed in 2012, prices began to rise. There is currently a high demand for anything from the Sleeping Beauty Mine and its popularity and value are likely to continue to grow.
Royal Blue Mine (Royston Mining District, Nevada):
Discovered in 1902 and is the oldest patented mine in Nevada. Royston turquoise is known for its beautiful deep green to rich light blue colors. These unique color ranges are what make this stone so special. Royston stones are often two-tone, displaying both dark and light green and sometimes blue. Royston turquoise is considered very collectible and a good investment.
Kingman Mine (Mineral Park Mining District, Arizona):
Known for their “high blue” color — Kingman turquoise has become a standard in the industry and has made them some of the most valuable and desired turquoise in the world.
It has been determined that American Indians had been using turquoise from this mine for over 1800 years. Kingman turquoise traded through the ancient trade routes has been found as far as Mexico City. Archaeologists have been able to date this turquoise to 200 AD and have traced it back to the Kingman mine.
The Colbaugh family has owned and operated Kingman since the 1880s and is credited for discovering this ancient mine as well as the Hohokam hammers left behind by the Navajo Indians.
Number 8 Mine (Eureka County, Nevada):
This mine is now only used to mine gold. It was first discovered in 1925 (the year my dad was born!), almost all the turquoise found here has a spider webbing matrix. The matrix colors can vary from golden brown to black. The turquoise range from very light to very dark blue, sometimes with tints of green. As with most mines, Number 8 turquoise has certain characteristic colors and matrix patterns that are very easily identified. The darker Number 8 turquoise are considered quite rare and highly valuable.
