The standard form of tiger's eye. Crocidolite replaced by silica, iron oxidised to gold. The band of light that moves across the surface when the stone is turned—chatoyancy—is its defining feature.

The Northern Cape of South Africa is the world's largest source. Traded at considerable value until the eighteenth century, when the discovery of major deposits in South Africa brought prices down sharply.

Across cultures, a stone with "tiger's eye" in its name has been consistently linked with the power to see through. People have always tried to read something in an animal's gaze. That impulse gave one mineral this name.