Article: Topaz and the amazing technicolor dream coating: is coated topaz natural? Or is it fake? One thing is for sure, it's a huge success.(Precious Designs Inc.)

Coated topaz sure has been good to Randy Gillis. Since discovering this high-tech treated gem five years ago, the jewelry manufacturer has made it the sole specialty at his Charlotte, North Carolina, company, Precious Designs Inc. "Once in a while, I'll find time to fill a request for an aquamarine piece," Gillis says, "but right now 99.9 percent of my business is topaz. And it's been that way for three years."

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What makes a man turn his back on the multitude of gems he has been selling for 25 years to use only a $2 to $4 per-carat special-effects stone with iridescent colors like those you see on the surface of soap bubbles and ...

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