Tiffany Stone is a unique purple stone cabochon material from Utah.

It is also called Bertrandite and is actually an Opalized Fluorite, or an Opalite.

Tiffany Stone is found in only one place in the world, at the Brush Wellman Beryllium Mine near Delta, in Western Utah.

Tiffany Stone is found in nodules, some quite large, and they often have a white soft rind. In addition to Opalized Fluorite, this material may include chalcedony, maganese, dolomite and of course bertrandite, which contains the mineral Beryllium.

The Brush Wellman Mine was founded in the 1960's for Beryllium, a metallic element. Beryllium is used in military, aerospace, and medical industries. This location is one of the very few sources in the world. Unfortunately most of the Tiffany Stone is crushed in the mining process. The material is not commercially collected and any semi precious stone cabochon material that is found is usually old stock that was brought out by the miners.

Rumor has it that the name either comes from its beautiful purple color and a reference to Tiffany glass lamp shades, or because one of the miners had a daughter named Tiffany.

Tiffany Stone semiprecious stone designer cabochons have a hardness of 5-6, but as with all Opalites, it can have healed fracture lines. It is best used in pendants and earrings.