Batu Akik Panca Warna (Panca Warna Stone)

Agate is probably the most common gemstone on the planet – but there are agates and then there are AGATES. Really top qualitymulticolor agate can sell for 1000’s of dollars.

The Pancawarna gemstone is in fact from the agate family, but because of it’s “aggregate” nature (many minerals mixed into one stone) it can be wildly multicolored.

Pancawarna means “five colors” or “multicolored” (in Sanskrit) and is a term that has been used for decades perhaps centuries to refer to the multicolored agates and jaspers of Indonesia, more particularly for stones from Java.

In fact the Agate stone Pancawarna often have a lot of black and sometimes white so the contrast in colors is very strong. The strong contrast is one of it’s special features. So Pancawarna Agate gemstone is a gemstone with five colour combination.

The material of Pancawarna gemstone  is very hard (6.5 to 7.0 on the Mohs scale – nearly as hard as jade) and takes a good polish, but some of Pancawarna gemstone material is very cracky and unstable, so a lot of material is lost in the cutting and polishing process.

Pancawarna Agate gemstone oftenly have wonderful abstract color patterns resembling abstract paintings, and very rarely what seems to be a picture – flowers, leaves, landscapes and even animals or human forms. These “picture agates” can be very expensive and are highly sought after. In fact true “picture agates” are a class in themselves and we will discuss those unique gems in the next issue.

The really top quality Pancawarna gemstone do look like paintings, in fact, but abstract paintings and really beautiful ones. Irwan Williams-Holmes, the American jewelry designer working in Indonesia for over 40 years even calls his exhibitions of Indonesian gems (and his jewelry) “Paintings by Angels”.