Moissanite Instead of Diamonds
Tip It!Just in time for Valentine’s Day… If you can’t afford diamonds, consider what may turn out to be the next best thing: Moissanite. First discovered in a meteorite crater in Arizona, Moissanite has the fire, luster and brilliance of a diamond, and it’s nearly as hard. While I’ve never seen it in person, Moissanite apparently lacks the ‘glassy’ appearance of cubic zirconia. So where (other than that Arizona crater) does it come from? It’s actually extremely rare to find it in nature, but a North Carolina company discovered (and patented) a process for growing it in the lab. The end result is a diamond look-alike that can be had for 1/10 the cost.
Published on February 13th, 2006 - 10 Comments
Filed under: Miscellany
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
Related articles...
» The Best of FCN – Selections from 02/06» One Year Ago This Week (February 11th – February 17th)
» From the Archives (February 10th – March 15th)
» Is it Possible to Live Without Credit Cards?
Was this article useful? Please sign up to receive our content via e-mail:
10 Responses to “Moissanite Instead of Diamonds”
Leave a Reply
Top Cards by Category
Earn $200 Bonus Cash Back after you make $500 in purchases in your first 3 months. 5% Cash Back on up to $1,500 spent in bonus categories each quarter.
Receive 10,000 Membership Rewards bonus points when you spend $1,000 in 3 months of Card membership.
Earn 3X points on airfare, 2X points on gas and groceries, and 1X points on everything else.
No Balance Transfer Fee!* 0% Intro APR for up to 15 months on purchases and balance transfers. This card offers Blueprint, free and customizable account features that help you avoid unnecessary interest and pay your balances down faster.
Enjoy no balance transfer fee for a limited time. 0% introductory rate on Balance Transfers and Purchases. Earn up to 5% Cashback Bonus in categories that change like gas, restaurants, department stores and more. Limitations apply*
Enjoy no balance transfer fee for a limited time. 0% introductory rate on Balance Transfers and Purchases. Earn up to 5% Cashback Bonus in categories that change like gas, restaurants, department stores and more. Limitations apply*
Enjoy amenities for you and your business, like: complimentary airport club access, including American Airlines Admirals Club(R) lounges.
5% Cashback Bonus in categories that change like gas, restaurants, department stores and more. Limitations apply*. Up to 1% unlimited Cashback Bonus on everything else. No annual fee
Earn 3X points on airfare, 2X points on gas and groceries, and 1X points on everything else.
Reports to 3 major credit bureaus monthly and acceptance at millions of locations worldwide, including website purchases and reservations.
- How to Become a Millionaire
- How to Get Out of Debt
- The Best Dollars I've Ever Spent
- How Our Estate Plan is Structured
- How We Paid Our Mortgage In Less than 10 Years
- Money Making Ideas
- How to Manage Your Asset Allocation with Multiple Accounts
- Consumption Smoothing - Save While the Saving's Good
- How to Save on Groceries
- How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?
- Eleven Great Books About Money
- Dave Ramsey is Bad at Math
- Dish Network Customer Service SUCKS
- $8,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Pay Off Mortgage Early or Invest?
- How to Claim the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Reduced Credit Limits? Share Your Experience
- $15,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Ethanol Blended Gas = Lower Mileage?
- Termite Control: Sentricon vs. Termidor
- How Much Should You Pay a Babysitter?
- Federal Income Tax Rates Went Down but Your Federal Tax Withholding Increased. Here's Why...
- Would the "Fair Tax" Gut the Economy?
How to save money on insurance
- The Best Values in Colleges - 2012 Edition
- Five Myths About Renter's Insurance
- Own Your Investments, Rent Your Fun
- Citibank to Issue Credit Cards in China
- Heartstrings and Pursestrings
- Saving Money at the Grocery Store: Store Brand Pricing on the Rise
- Missing Tax Paperwork?
- Is Your Investment Allocation Right?
- Chase Freedom Experimenting With Quarterly Rewards Auto-Enrollment
- Income-Based Repayment Plans for Student Loans
February 13th, 2006 at 8:10 am
I do think that costume jewelry is nice. Moissanite, Cubic Zirconia, and other diamond imitations are preety. Even glass is preety.
But those are best left for when a girl wants to buy it for herself.
On gifts I only believe on giving the real thing. No inmitations, no fakes, just like the real love. Of course, the only diamond I have given to my wife was the engagement one, I can’t afford to give diamonds every year. But whatever I give her is true, even if not expensive. As true as my love to her.
A gift card to a jewelry store that carries diamond inmitations may be an option. Let her choose what she wants to wear.
February 13th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
I find that’s it’s more important to give a gift that required some thinking than one that just required a credit card. Jewelry is a nice backup but a good gift is much harder than that.
February 28th, 2006 at 2:36 pm
Check out Wikipedia for the discovery of “Moissanite” a.k.a. Silicon carbide. It was synthetically created in 1893 by Edward Goodrich Acheson, before it was discovered in nature in 1905 as part of the Arizona meteorite to which you refer. Acheson was awarded the patent for its creation.
February 28th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
Thanks Bill. I wasn’t aware of that.
April 21st, 2006 at 11:05 pm
Instead of Moissanite, you may want to look in to White Zircon. It’s real and just as pretty.
April 26th, 2006 at 10:13 pm
Girlfriend and I picked out a Moissanite engagement ring. Excellent stone. No one knows it isn’t a diamond and we don’t tell them it is. Beautiful. Don’t let the debeers marketing campaign fool you. Diamonds are just rocks and the only reason they have such high value is that debeers owns 85 percent of the market. Also, if you have a small village in Africa and decide to mine your own diamonds yourself, they will KILL you. Search “blood diamonds” on the internet. Check Moissanite out at an independent jewelry store.
May 9th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
If it looks like a diamond, is as hard as a diamond, quality of a diamond, of course i’ll buy moissanite. Only an idiot would spend $5,400 more just to say “it’s the real thing.” Believe me, no cares if it’s the real thing. It’s the look and quality that counts, and the price of course.
February 20th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Jose and a few of you are idiots. It’s only “real” like love because Debeers and their marketing have convinced you that it’s the only way to prove ones love…
freak’n stupid!
December 15th, 2011 at 11:00 am
From Wikipedia: “Colours vary widely and are graded in the I-J-K range on the diamond color grading scale…Since 1998, when the first moissanite reached the jewelry market, it has been regarded as an excellent fine jewel, with optical properties exceeding those of diamond. Because it has its own unique appearance, it can not be truly called a diamond simulant…In many developed countries, the use of moissanite in jewelry has been patented; these patents expire in 2015…High power SiC electronic devices are expected to play an enabling and vital role in the design of protection circuits used for motors, actuators, and energy storage or pulse power systems.”
The I-J-K range on the diamond color scale is in the “slightly colored” category.
Owing to the patent situation, one might reasonably expect prices of Moissanite to fall in the next 2-3 years. On the other hand, demand for Moissanite by electronics firms might push prices up–or it might only stimulate supply.
December 15th, 2011 at 11:00 am
I don’t buy into the DeBeers line of bull. Diamonds are for sharpening my knife and cutting other hard objects. And they are NOT forever.