How to buy Gemstone: Emerald

Emerald is a precious Gemstone and one has to know about it before buying. Gemstones are mysterious and difficult to get knowledge of it. It takes a lot of time, experience and training to get skills to evaluate and identify emerald.

I am giving here some tips to know and understand emeralds. I am describing here from the perspectives of customers / buyers. A layman can understand these tips before buying an emerald. You need not to be an expert of emerald to buy it. However, having a general knowledge about emeralds will help you while buying emerald, a precious stone.

Emerald is a color stone also referred as colored gemstone. It belongs to beryl group of gemstones. Beril is chemically beryllium aluminium cyclo-silicate. It is found naturally in the nature. Beryllium aluminium cyclo-silicate, when added with coloring certain agent(s) becomes emerald. Coloring agent is also a metallic oxide found and added naturally in the mines during crystallization process of the precious stone.

Physical properties of emerald: Beril are opaque, translucent and transparent. Beril with coloring agent green with translucence or transparency is called emerald. Specific gravity of emerald is between 2.65 and 2.8 and its hardness in Moh’s scale is measured between seven and half to eight. Refractive index of emerald varries between 1.56 and 1.59.

Origins: Columbia, Zambia, Brazil, Madagascar, Russia, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and India are major sources of emerald. However, Columbian emeralds are considered as the best. Zambian and Sandwana (Zimbabwe) mines are also producing very good emeralds. Origin or mine of emerald plays a major role in determining its valuation. It is therefore, advised to know about origin before buying an emerald.

Astrological Views:

Emerald is a precious stone belonging to Navratna family according to Indian astrology. Green color of emerald resembles the mercury among planets. Hence it is prescribed for the planet mercury. Emerald is the birth stone for month May according to western astrology and palmistry.

Like any other gemstone four “C”s play major role in determining value of emerald. These four “C”s are Cut, Clarity, Color and Carat weight. It is better to know about four “C”s before buying an emerald.

Cut: There are various types of cuts in emerald gemstone. These are faceted, cabochons, beads, drops, carvings etc. Cut stones are the costliest followed by cabochons and beads. Cut stones are faceted but cabochons are plain. Beads and drops are manufactured both in faceted and plain quality.

There are various shapes in both cut and cabochons such as Oval, Octagon, Square, Pear, Heart, Marquise and Round.

There is a special cut for emerald. It is basically octagon but called emerald cut. This cut enhances beauty of emerald.

Clarity: Clean emerald is rare of the rarest. Gemstone emerald often has many inclusions. Black and yellow spots, cracks, micaceous, hole inside, fissure, dichroism etc are main inclusions of emerald.

More inclusions means lesser clarity (purity). Clean is rare and fetches highest price. Emerald with better purity has more price and with lesser purity has lower price.

Carat weight: Bigger the size more the price. It is true for good quality emeralds. Fine quality emeralds of bigger sizes are rare. Generally fine quality Zambian or Sandwana emeralds above 10 carats are rare. Sizes between four to seven carats for a fine quality Zambian emerald is considered as very good.

Color shades: Colorof emerald varies between light to deep green.Sometimes it has blue, yellow or black tints. Light color fetches lesser price than deeper color. However, over color emeralds fetch lower price. Generally bright green is the costliest. Bright green with golden tint is royal color of emerald. Blue, yellow and black tints present in emerald lower the price of an emerald gemstone. Oily green color is not also considered good.

Colombian emerald has the most pleasant bright green color. Russian emerald is normally of light color and Zambian emerald has blue tints. Bright color and transparency of Colombian emerald fetches maximum price. Hence, you can stress on Colombian origin while buying an emerald.

However, price of emeralds does not depend too much on mines like rubies. Mines other than Columbia also fetch very good price. Fine quality Zambian or Sandwana emeralds are also very expensive.

Treatments: Natural emeralds are also treated to enhance its color, clarity and transparency. Most popular treatment is oil treatment and vaccum treatment. Natural emeralds are costlier than treated emeralds. There are some other treatments such as pressure fillings. Most of the treatments enhance clarity of emeralds. Treatments of emeralds generally do not last long. There are some other types of treatments and I will discuss them elsewhere in future.

Buy from a trustworthy Jeweler: Evaluating and buying emeralds are tricky thing. Even experts vary in their opinions. Evaluating emerald is a difficult thing. It is almost impossible for a layman or a buyer to evaluate it correctly. Hence the best way is to go to a trustworthy jeweler and gemstone dealer. You can also ask a certificate before buying an emerald. There are many certification agencies. Gublin (Switzerland) is the most renowned in certifying emeralds and other color stones followed by Gemological institute of America. There are some other certification agencies you can rely on.

Above mentioned are only some tips to evaluate and buy emerald gemstone. It will help you in identifying and evaluating emerald. However, it is advised to consult an approved valuer or trustworthy jeweler before going to buy an emerald gemstone.