Cat’s Eye

This pale yellow, honey-coloured or green/brown translucent to transparent variety showing good chatoyancy was at one time called cymophane. Chatoyancy is caused by very fine parallel needles or hollow tubes. Good examples show a very sharp bright ‘eye’. To display these cat’s-eyes to best effect these stones are cut as cabochons.

Localities

Cat’s-eyes are found in brazil and sri Lanka. Other localities include India, Myanmar (Burma) and Zimbabwe.

Materials with a similar appearance

Cat’s-eye quartz; bleached tiger’s-eye quartz cut to show cat’s-eye, fiber optic glass and yellow to brown cat’s-eye opal.