The Great Ball of China?

That's the title of an article in the Daily Mail.

Weighing six tons and standing 5ft tall, this luminous pearl may be hard to shift physically speaking – but even with a mammoth £88 million [over US $137 million] price tag it shouldn’t be too hard to find a buyer.




The stone, formed mostly of a fluorite mineral, glows green in the dark and is prized more highly than diamonds in China.

It was unearthed in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia and took its finders three years to grind the raw gem down to its pearl shape.

It has gone on show in Hainan, southern China, to attract buyers and have measurements taken for a world record bid.

It is amazing and glows a blue green in the dark,' remarked one show organiser.

'These pearls are very sought after in China, especially when they are this size.'

The luminous stones, sometimes known as a Chintamani, are a wish-fulfilling jewel within the Buddhist religion.

Fluorite is well known for the amazing colours it can give out, so much so that it has been given the nickname of 'the most colourful mineral in the world'.

Its unique properties mean that the characteristic of fluorescence, when a material emits light, is named after fluorite itself.

There's more at the link.

OK, I'm officially impressed! I wouldn't pay that for it (I couldn't even if I wanted to!), but it's a heck of a display piece, isn't it?





Peter