Moissanite is a rare mineral that was discovered in 1893 by Nobel prize winning scientist, Dr. Henri Moissan. Found in a meteorite, Dr. Moissan originally thought he had found diamonds in space, but instead, he had found a unique, brilliant jewel. Moissanite is so rare, it would be almost impossible to make even a single pair of stud earrings. However, Charles & Colvard has spent 100 years and over 40 million dollars to develop patented groundbreaking technology for creating large Moissanite jewels by growing the jewel from a "seed" in a high-tech crystal grower.
Moissanite is has a hardness of 9.25 on the Mohs scale. The only jewel harder than Moissanite is a diamond, which has a 10 on the Mohs scale, making Moissanite is harder than a Ruby or Sapphire. Some fine jewelers cannot tell the difference between moissanite and diamonds, because of the fire, brilliance and luster of Moissanite is comparable to the finest diamonds.
