Fossilized Coral - Unique Jewelry - Flowers of Stone

Agatized fossilized coral (more commonly "fossilized coral") has so far only been found in Indonesia. The rough material is mostly found on the island of Sumatra, in Indonesia. But small pieces of lesser quality have been found in Java for some 50 years. The Javanese material, however, was not good enough or in quantity enough to reach the international market as jewelry or loose stones.

About 12 years ago a fruit seller in Sumatra found some stones and sent them to Java to find out if they were worth anything. These turned out to be spectactular, multicolored, fossilized coral with large, beautifully deliniated "flowers". And some ofthe stones from a certain location were translucent giving the "flowers" an almost three-dimensional look.

The remarkable thing about this semi-precious gem is, of course, that the ends of thecoral stalks nearly always look like flowers, andsome of the best stones look precisely like bouquets or even gardens ( the few that do not look like flowers are also strikingly beautiful).

During the past 10 or so years the Chinese of Taiwan and mainland China have been buying rough fossilized coral and using it as carving material as well as for cabochons. A couple of American dealers have material as well as for cabochons. A couple of American dealers have been buying large quantities of "commercial" quality stones and selling them inthe States. And a Dutchman is marketing cheap material in Europe.

Great efforts have been made to collect unique and extraordinary pieces. Some of these will be reflected in images on this hub page.

The passion of a few high fashion Jewelry designers and craftsmen for these remarkably beautiful stones as been indicated and supported by the arrival of world famous Spanish jewelry designer, Ferran Iglesias, to Jakarta. During his visit he was moved by the beauty of the jewelry made using fossilized coral to buy a collection of fossilized coral. Previous purchases had been shown by Mr. Iglesias in Munich, Germany. Set with diamonds and platinum they also were shown in very up market galleries in New York. This resulted in immediate purchases which has further supported the belief that good fossilized coral is fit for upper end markets of the world. The scarcity of the best fossilized coral will only serve to further increase the value of these beautiful semi precious stones.

For those enviornmentally concerned it is important to point out that fossilized coral is NOT coral. Therefore the mining for these stones in no way has a negative effect on the sea or the eco-system in general. The process of fossilization (or petrification) is a million-or-so year process of the replacement of tiny molecules of coral by agate (or jasper) molecules. What was, a million years ago, coral is now a stone more or less in the agate/jasper family. And the rough stone is found on land often many meters below the surface and not in the sea.

Even when compared by experts to gems in the museums of the Smithsonian and Idar-Oberstein the most beautiful cabochon semi precious stones, fossilized coral and the jewelry that results come from Indonesia.