Gems HQ

Since the ancient times emeralds have characterized the green, and that applies not only to gemstones. It is rare and very valuable gemstone that is placed in the traditional gemstone “big four” along with diamond, ruby and sapphire. And what is more – in their best quality emeralds are even more valuable and expensive than diamonds.

The name “emerald” comes form the ancient Greek “smaragdos” that meant “green gemstone”. The center of the emerald mining of the world is Colombia and Brazil (South America). It is known that even Incas and Aztecs considered it a holy stone. However the oldest finds are in Egypt. This place was later called Cleopatra’s mines and is dated about 3000 years BC.

The emerald gems represent the spring and life that is comes round and round again. But also in ancient Rome it was considered the gemstone of Venus (the goddess of love and beauty). Due to its green color it still plays a big role in different cultures and religions. Thus the Catholic Church regards the green the only natural and therefore first liturgical color, and the green is the sacred color of Islamists.

Speaking of leading emerald mining countries I can say that Colombia is still on the top of the list of countries where emeralds are found recently. There are about 150 known deposits though not all of them are exploited even today. The most popular between them are Muzo and Chivor, where emeralds were mined by the Incas in pre-Columbian times.

Emerald gems are also found in other countries such as Zambia, Madagascar, Brazil, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, India and Russia. Zambia, Zimbabwe and Brazil actually do have a good reputation for mining fine emeralds and positioning them in the international trade.

Though emerald hardness protects the stone from different scratches it has the quite serious drawback – the complexity of setting, cutting and even cleaning emerald gems. However such challenges did not prevent cutters of designing a special cut for this gem- the emerald cut. The clear design of this square (sometimes rectangular) cut with the beveled corners brings out the perfection of this gem to the full, at the same time protecting it from mechanical strain.

Like many other precious stones the price per carat of fine emerald gem rapidly increases with its size. For example 3 carat Colombian stone is six times more valuable than three equivalent quality 1 carat stones. The most desirable and therefore valuable color is a slightly bluish green in the medium dark tone with strong to vivid saturation. Clarity is quite important too. Top quality, non enhanced certified stones, can bring about 50% more in price than treated stones of the same size, color and clarity.

The main drawback of all precious and valuable gemstones (emerald gem is not an exclusion) is a huge amount of innumerable synthetics and imitations. Emerald imitations that buyer can often encounter in the marketplace are: glass, YAG, synthetic spinel triplets, green cubic zirconia, and beryl triplets. Within the last fifty years two major processes have been developed to produce “lab created” emeralds. So be careful and try to buy emerald gems only with a report from a reputable gemmological institute.