Guilding the Stone-January Trivia Quiz

Answer: Plato

The engraving was made by a Roman artisan. The ancient Greeks believed the garnet had properties that would ensure lovers are safely re-united, prevent children from drowning, keep away nightmares and provide guidance at night. Garnets also have been said to symbolize purity, truth, love and passion, and to increase one's sense of security, spiritual awareness and success in business.

Answer: True

Garnets are actually a cluster of seed-like minerals composing a stone, and the mineral content will determine its color. Garnets vary in color from red, purplish, brown, yellow, orange, and green depending upon the minerals in the amalgam.

Answer: Slovakia

Garnet mines are located in the mountainous region of Slovakia, the southern portion of the former Czechoslovakia. Prague and the Pilsen (beer making) district is in the north and now apart of The Czech Republic. With the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the forming of formerly Communist states into independent states, the Czechs formed a democratic government.

The Communists put up no resistance, so the revolution was nonviolent, or velvet. Czechoslovakian President Vaclav Havel led the country through a peaceful partitioning period from which two distinct nations emerged.

Answer: Demantoid

The Demantoid, a green garnet, was first thought to be an emerald as it was found in the Bobrovka region along the River Tschussawaja in which emeralds were already being mined. It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as an "Uralian emerald." The presence of byssolite, or asbestos, accounts for its color and particular radiance.

Answer: Chromite

Garnets are one of the nesosilcates. The red garnets have a high iron, or ferrous oxide, content.

Answer: The Indian Ocean, riverbeds and regions of India

The garnet particles embedded in the sands of the Indian Sea and freshwater riverbeds are used for polishing and sandblasting, due to their hardness. That found in riverbeds has a more angular shape, no chloride content and is said to have less conductivity.

Answer: Uvarovite

Count S.S. Uvarov was the President of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences from 1818 to 1855. He also served as Nicholas I's Minister of Education from 1833-49 and is credited with coining the Tsar's philosophy and political mandates into the phrase "Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality." His portrait, painted in 1815-16 by Orest Kiprensky, is on display at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. The Uvarovite is dark green with a hardness ranging between 6.5 and 7.5., and it is considered very rare, if not the rarest, of all garnets.

Answer: Sarah Palin

Palin's birthday is Feb. 11, 1964. Her birthstone is the beautiful amethyst. Elvis Presley's birthday is January 8, 1935, and Robert Duvall's is January 5, 1931. The birthday for Ben Franklin is January 17th.

Answer: Demantoid

Most Demantoid garnets, the softest of all garnets, can be found in antique jewelry, as they were quite popular during the Victorian era when the gemstones were abundant. Over the past one hundred years, the Ural mines have been depleted, although smaller mines have recently been discovered. Grossularite garnets can be colorless; the African magnetism garnets exhibit magnetic effects; and, Topazolite garnets are yellow, topaz-like, or a slight olive green.

Answer: Egypt

Clearly, garnets have a history as rich as their colors. The word garnet derives from garanatus or granatum, or seed-like, as the cluster of mineral deposits within the garnet resembles an opened pomegranate.