Tasmanian Sapphire

David Federman writes:

Australia was to sapphire in the 1980s what South Africa was to diamonds for more than a century. Still, no one felt blue when Aussie indigos disappeared under a blanket of Madagascar's dressier blues in the 1990s.

The new African corundum boasted color that begged comparison to that of Sri Lankan goods—even on occasion Kashmir classics. Australia's material, on the other hand, was lucky to inspire comparisons to dark but sometimes handsome Cambodian and Thai stones. No wonder Australia came and went as a corundum colossus and no one shed a tear.

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