The discovery and naming of phenacite and alexandrite
Numerous legends are told about the discovery and naming of alexandrite in the 1830s and 1840s. Key figures in all narrations concerning this first colour-change gemstone are L. A. Perovskii, Vice-President of the Appanage Department of the Russian Tsar and Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire, and N. G. Nordenskiold, superintendent of mines in Helsingfors. Phenacite is another gemstone which was also discovered in the Uralian emerald mines in the early 1830s with the same people involved. Based upon the remaining letters of both individuals, Perovskii and Nordenskiold, and the published literature, the facts about the discovery and first description of both gem materials are critically evaluated. The first specimens of phenacite were found in 1832 and the first fragments of alexandrite crystals were discovered in 1833, both by Y. V. Kokovin, at that time director of the Ekaterinburg lapidary works. Soon thereafter, samples of the new gem materials were distributed via Perovskii to different mineralogists for examination. The name phenacite was suggested by Nordenskiold in late 1832/early 1833, ignoring an already existing local usage to name the mineral kokovinite. The name alexandrite, in honour of the Russian Crown Prince, was suggested by Nordenskiold almost a decade later, in 1842, after Kokovin's death.