Emerald Information & FAQ
What Emeralds Are and Are Not
The dazzling color and enchanting character of emeralds come from chromium and vanadium impurities that have invaded an otherwise colorless crystal structure, replacing aluminum. At their essence, emeralds are not meant to be perfect crystals. A perfect diamond is just carbon. But, the perfect emerald is an artist’s dazzling dance, created in the crucible of the chemically impossible.
What Makes an Emerald Valuable?
Judging Emerald Quality
Clarity is next in line--the crown prince. The perfect prince is a rare gem indeed. But perfection isn’t everything. Even prominently included stones can be valuable treasures for their color, character and uniqueness.
Cut is the princess of the family. It can make the stone dance with every movement, or leave it dreary. Proper proportions and expert polishing create brilliance inside the stone that brings it to life.
What Is Emerald Finishing?
For that reason, dating back literally to the pyramids, emeralds are finished with a stress line "filler" 90-95% of the time. Virtually every emerald you see is "treated" or "oiled." The fillers enhance the clarity of the gem and prevent foreign substances from entering the stress fissures. Untreated stones without inclusions or stress lines are incredibly rare and demand a dramatically higher price per carat, creating some instances where a stone was certified as untreated and was later treated without updating the certificate.
Other "emeralds" are lab created or grown, and have little to no true value. Panjshir Valley Emeralds are the real deal, as nature has smiled upon the Hindu Kush mountains, bringing the sea bed to the mountain tops to create these extraordinary pieces of art called emeralds.
Many types of fillers are used in the marketplace. A good filler is both long-lasting and able to be re-applied.
Oil fillers are easily removable but also deteriorate rather quickly.
Hardened or permanent resin fillers can last for a long time, but no filler is truly as permanent as a timeless emerald. The difficulty of removing these fillers when they eventually do deteriorate makes them not ideal.
Removable, unhardened resins provide the best blend of long-lasting beauty with the sustainable ability to be removed and reapplied every 5 to 10 years if needed.
For the reasons above, we evaluate each gem and decide which treatment, or no treatment, is best to allow its natural beauty shine through in a removable manner. We will generally use the more durable resin and sometimes oil, if more appropriate for the uniqueness of the stone.
Where Do Emeralds Come From?
While there are many unanswered questions, scientists believe that these sedimentary deposits formed at slightly lower temperatures and with an extra-rich supply of chromium, compared to their igneous cousins. The details of formation may be mysterious, but one thing is clear—sedimentary emerald deposits contain the world’s purest and greenest emeralds.
When the two sedimentary deposits are compared side by side, emeralds from Panjshir are revealed to have significantly higher chromium content–making them the new standard in emerald color.
Green Variety of Beryl | Emerald
Some colors have the power to pull you into a realm all of their own. Viewing the green of fine emerald can feel shockingly brazen, yet a surrounding feeling of comfort ensues as your gaze continues. Emeralds and their teal-tinged greens have persisted through centuries hand in hand with humans, inspiring acts emotionally wrought through artwork, thievery, poem, and even war. At its finest, emerald will show you a strong to vivid saturation of medium toned green to bluish green. Sophisticated and lively, the velvety returns of lush, jungle greens that emerald purrs are world treasures.
Emerald is classified as the very strongly bluish-green to green variety of the gemstone and mineral beryl (Be3Al2SiO6). Its nourishing green is due to its combination of trace elements vanadium, chromium, and iron. Varying levels of each dictate an emerald's personal combination of hue, saturation, and tone. Emeralds are most commonly mined from areas comprised of metamorphic-rock and are hosted either in schists or pegmatites, while others are found in hydrothermal veins within sedimentary rock. These growing conditions create crystals that are typically included, making examples without visual interference a standout amid the already rare crystal.
Most emerald available today is mined in Zambia, Colombia, Brazil, Afghanistan or Zimbabwe. Colombian emeralds have provided the root of legends, their luscious greens spreading beyond local borders in the mid 1500's to Europe and its internal trade routes. These historic gems have inspired the standard against which all emerald is judged today. Trapiche emerald, a curiously grand showing of six crystals having grown in unison, trace their peculiar origin back to the Muzo region of Colombia. In the 1960's, Zambian emerald established its ability to supply the world with its clean, blue-leaning hues. Regardless of origin, it's necessary for stones labeled as emerald to contain a significant amount of depth to their color in order to differentiate from more common and lightly-saturated green beryl.
Ranging from 7.5 – 8.0 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, emeralds are excellent choices for use in jewelry, but must be handled with care. Their common inclusions pose challenges to cutters and jewelers alike, requiring skilled hands to craft finished pieces. Children born in May carry emerald as their birthstone, while Taurus, Libra, and Cancer value it as a stone of power under the Zodiac. Emerald's high demand and infrequent occurrence of fine clarity crystals makes it a rarity that has traditionally been treated with oil. Emerald's body of admirers has created a global market for emerald imitations and synthetic renditions, yet none stand hope of vanquishing the sublime beauty of natural, succulent emerald.