When America was still the ‘Wild West, two young men by the name of Charles Tiffany and John Young established the ‘Fancy Goods Emporium’ on New York’s ‘Broadway’. In 1837, on their first day of business they managed to net the total of $4.98. By the 1980’s the business was netting over $1,00,000,000 per year. The company of which we speak is of course Tiffany’s, whose phenomenal success story is due in part to creative designing and clever marketing, but above all to a passionate interest in all things mineral.

The story goes that after seeing the first Tanzanite crystals, Platt became so excited that he immediately set about organizing a marketing campaign. However, at this time Tanzanite was only known by its mineral name Zoisite, Platt felt that this sounded like ‘Suicide’ so renamed the blue gem after its sole origin of occurrence: Tanzania. According to Platt, Tanzanite was going to be the new colored gemstone sensation of the 20th Century; his campaign boldly proclaimed “Tanzanite is the most important gemstone discovery in over 2000 years." Due to the phenomenal success of Platt’s marketing, in today’s market the mining of Tanzanite profits the Tanzanian government $20,000,000 million per year, the finished product being sold mostly on the US market totaling around $500,000,000 annually. However, financial figures like these are misleading.

In fact, the organization of Tanzania’s Tanzanite industry has turned out to be so successful, that it became the first colored gemstone ever to have its own sight-holding scheme. The sight holding scheme, first applied in the diamond industry, restricts the sale of Tanzanite to a certain number of overseas buyers. These buyers have shares in the industry, and are guaranteed a certain amount of Tanzanite per year. From the point of view of Tanzania’s mineral industry, this effectively controls the market, ensuring that the wealth is equally and evenly distributed. From a consumer’s standpoint, buying Tanzanite from a recognized sight-holder, ensures that what they are getting is the real deal of premium certified quality.