[Rockhounds] Gemstones in a War Zone...

[Gary Brown]

Oh my, let's get off the flames, eh?

A note from a friend:

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My cousin’s heading back over to the war zones for a couple of months, specifically Afghanistan, and we got to talking about stones. He picked up some emeralds last time he was there, relatively cheap, which turned out to be fairly good stones. One of them, about 2.5 carats with nice color, was his wife’s valentine’s present. He wanted to know if there was something else he could be on the lookout for, too, besides just emeralds.

Any ideas? I’m thinking not so much cut gemstones, because I suspect he got very, very lucky this time (although if you saw him, probably not all THAT lucky—I sure wouldn’t want him coming to me to ask for his money back in an annoyed way...). But what about collector’s stones, crystals, etc...?

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And so, huddled masses yearning to give me answers.  What sayeth thee?  

GcB