PRECIOUS AND SEMI-PRECIOUS STONES IN THE MINERALOGICAL COLLECTION OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Sumeja Mutap
Mevlida Operta
DOI: 10.35666/25662880.2025.11.70
UDC: 069[549.091:679.87](497.6)
Abstract: The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina was founded in 1888 and consists of the Department of Natural History, the Department of Ethnology and the Department of Archaeology. As part of the Department of Natural Sciences, the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina houses a rich collection of the Geological Department with numerous and diverse minerals, rocks and fossils from Bosnia and Herzegovina and neighboring countries, as well as from the most distant parts of the world. The rich mineralogical collection is important as a tourist offer because it contains samples of minerals from Bosnia and Herzegovina and from many parts of the world, and some of them come from mines that are no longer in use. Minerals belonging to precious and semi precious stones in the exhibition mineralogical collection of the Department of Natural Sciences have been revised. The samples have been analyzed in detail, the weights and sizes of the samples have been measured, the inventory numbers on the samples and inventory books have been checked, after which they have been photographed and entered into a scientific database. The work analyzes the most significant and best-known specimens of precious and semi-precious stones found in the mineralogical collection of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The role of the National Museum in the promotion of tourism is significant because the mineralogical collection of the Department of Natural Sciences contains precious and semi-precious stones from world-famous sites, such as a diamond from the Kimberley region in South Africa, ruby and sapphire crystals from the a world-famous site in Sri Lanka, an emerald from Russia, where the largest known emerald crystal was found. The collection exhibits garnet crystals from the largest European deposits (in the Czech Republic and the European Alps) as well as crystals from the richest deposits in the world, such as topaz crystals from Brazil, beautiful and large rubellite crystals from California (USA) and tourmaline crystals found on the island of Elba (Italy). The setting features prized and beloved amethysts in the form of beautiful geodes from the Czech Republic and agates from the world's richest agate deposits in Brazil.
Keywords: National Museum, mineralogical collection, precious stones, semi-precious stones, diamond, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, deposits
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