The mineral moissanite derives its name from Nobel Prize winner Dr. Ferdinand Henri Moissan, who discovered traces of it in a meteorite at Diablo Canyon it in 1893. What makes this substance so special is that it is almost as hard as diamond. On the Mohs Scale, which measures the hardness of minerals (www.amfed.org/t_mohs.htm) it scores a 9.25 compared to the "perfect 10" of diamond.

There was an initial furor on the jewelry market when moissanite first surfaced. Would it compete with diamond as the worlds most treasured mineral? The fact was that even seasoned experts might be fooled into mistaking colorless maissonite for diamond without the proper equipment. In fact, moissanite even shares the thermal conductivity and much of the molecular structure of diamond.

Those misgivings have since been laid to rest. In the first place, natural maissonite (moissanite-6H) does not come in big enough sizes to be useful as jewelry, and the synthetic version(silicon carbide or carborundum) is not held in very high esteem among purists. Secondly, there exist foolproof testing protocols that can detect the difference between moissanite and diamond without difficulty.

However, moissanite has now emerged as a valid jewelry medium in its own right. Stones made from its synthetic version are being marketed as SiC gemstones, and they have quite a fan following. They are reputed to have twice the "fire" found in diamonds, and are certainly cheaper.

Natural moissanite is crystalline, green in color, with an adamantine luster. It is generally transparent or translucent and occurs in hexagonal or trigonal shapes. These are the main factors used for determining it. It belongs chiefly to the carbon group of compounds, which also includes diamond and graphite.