LaPearlite – New Official State Gemstone
Saturday, July 02, 2011
By Times-Picayune Staff
The Times-Picayune
Gov. Bobby Jindal has blessed a plan to create a new state gemstone, the cabochon cut gemstone derived from a special Louisiana-grown oyster — the Crassostrea virginica mollusk.
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LaPearlite by Anne Dale
Jindal recently signed into law House Bill 246 by Rep. Scott Simon, R-Abita Springs, dislodging the agate, “as found in Louisiana gravel,” as the official state gemstone and renaming it as the state’s first-ever official mineral.
The new oyster-shell gemstone can be fashioned from a species of mollusk that is bountiful off the Louisiana coast, Simon said. He said the sale of the new gemstone could also be a boost to tourism and the state’s struggling seafood industry. The cut and fashioned shells are considered by gemologists, including those at the Smithsonian Institution, to be gems, not shells, he said.
Jindal’s approval allows the now-official state mineral and gemstone to be displayed on official state documents alongside the insignia of the state. The official status of the two items will not be effective until Aug. 15, when Simon’s law goes on the books.