Typically appearing in vivid and pastel limes, Herderite is an extremely attractive yet very rare gemstone. It was named for Siegmund August Wolfgang Von Herder (1776 - 1838), a mining official in Freiberg, Saxony, Germany where it was first discovered.



Herderite has a vitreous luster and a very complicated crystal structure, with its twinned crystals (one crystal growing within another) being its most noteworthy feature.

One of Herderite’s other characteristics is that it is thermo luminescent, meaning it may glow with a weak blue light upon extreme heating. It is also sometimes fluorescent, showing a deep blue in long wave ultraviolet (UV) light.

Herderite appears in a range of vivid to pastel colors including white, yellow, green and blue.

Herderite is predominately mined in Minas Gerais, Brazil, Germany and Russia. In the USA there are several locations that mine Herderite including Newery, Maine, New Hampshire and San Diego, California. Regardless of the locale, the percentage of rough crystals unearthed suitable for jewelry is extremely limited.

Don’t expect to see a lot of Herderite at GemsTV. In 2005, we were only able to source less than a dozen pieces of this incredibly rare and exotically beautiful gem. Whenever we do discover it, as it is so rare, we always set it in 18K gold.