Natural Spessartite Mandarin Orange Garnet

Spessartite garnet was introduced to the world about 200 years ago. It was discovered in the mid 1800’s in Spessart, Bavaria. For decades, perhaps the best known spessartite source was the Little Three Mine and Hercules Mine, located here in San Diego, California. Once a rare collector’s gem, the brilliant orange garnet started to grow in popularity in 1990’s, after the discovery of deposits in Namibia and later Nigeria, Tanzania and Mozambique. Today, the Spessartite (or Spessartine) is one of the most popular of all garnets. It is highly desired by collectors, jewelry designers and gem lovers.