Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Mine

Sleeping Beauty was, for over a century, probably the best known American Turquoise Mine. An Arizona mine –located near Globe– legendary for its pure blue colors Sleeping Beauty was, for most of the second half of the 20th century, the benchmark that all other blue turquoise was measured against. (Sleeping Beauty is also the color that the vast majority of fake “Turquoise” attempts to emulate.) Now that the Sleeping Beauty Mine has been closed genuine Sleeping Beauty has become a true collector’s item. (Ironically, while people now actively seek out “Sleeping Beauty” –and often don’t get genuine Sleeping Beauty– in the late 19^th century turquoise from the Sleeping Beauty mine was marketed as “Persian” because an exotic –non-American– source could fetch a premium. Now “Sleeping Beauty” has the name cachet “Persian” used to. Sadly, we conservatively estimate that at least 80% of the turquoise marketed as “Sleeping Beauty” is not genuine Sleeping Beauty. We only sell turquoise as Sleeping Beauty that actually came from the Sleeping Beauty mine.)