Collection: Cape May Diamonds

On a recent trip to the Jersey Shore, I found these fascinating gemstones while combing the beach for Sea Glass.  I wasn't sure if they were topaz or quartz, but were so beautiful and perfectly tumbled into ovals by nature. I loved them and shipped a whole box of them back to Florida - much to my husbands of chagrin!

Here is some information from Wikipedia

Cape May Diamonds  are quartz pebbles found on the beaches of Cape May Point, New Jersey. The pebbles are sometimes collected, cut and polished to resemble diamonds. Cape May diamonds are usually collected by beach combing.

Origin  Cape May diamonds are actually pieces of quartz washed down, and worn smooth in the process, from the upper Delaware River.  Apocryphally, the trip takes thousands of years.  However, geologists suggest the pebbles are local in origin, washing out of nearby Pleistocene gravel deposits. Cape May diamonds are sometimes incorrectly described as river-smoothed glass discarded by the New Jersey's once-thriving glass manufacturing industry.

History  The Native American tribe called the Kechemeche resided in what is now the southern portion of Cape May County, New Jersey.  Various sources attribute the Kechemeche with being the first to find Cape May Diamonds and then using them as gifts or for trading with other tribes and with newly arriving European colonists.