Why emeralds are expensive

The most desirable emerald colours are bluish-green to green, with vivid saturation and medium to medium-dark tone. When it comes to rare and expensive gemstones, most of us immediately think of diamonds, but, in fact, emeralds are more than 20 times rarer than diamonds and, therefore, often command a higher price.

That said, emeralds are an ideal option for those looking to maximise size of stone with budget, since they appear larger than a diamond of the same carat weight because they are less dense.

The Gachala emerald found in Colombia in weighs carats and is among the world's largest and most famous examples of the stone. Unlike diamonds, where clarity plays a significant role in valuing a stone, inclusions are to be expected in emeralds. The inclusions are formed of gases, other minerals and crystals, and liquids that emeralds take on during the crystallisation process and are often viewed as desirable features.

Emerald clarity refers to what the stone looks like on the inside and is usually assessed with the naked eye, rather than under magnification. Due to their inherent inclusions, emeralds are often treated with oils or resins to enhance their clarity and improve their quality and grade. Variations in colour and inclusion are part of the natural beauty of emeralds. Find our more with our Precious Stones Guide to Emeralds.

Most emeralds are, therefore, treated by filling cracks with oil to prevent chipping. Consequently, an emerald should never be cleaned with chemicals or an ultrasound machine. Instead, simply use warm water to rinse away any dirt, allow to dry and then rub with a soft cloth. You can also coat emeralds with baby oil as an extra precaution to help prevent the stone from becoming overly brittle.

Our guide to caring for emerald rings will tell you everything you need to know about looking after these soft precious gemstones, and their settings. According to ancient folklore, putting an emerald under your tongue would help a person see into the future. Wearing emeralds was also thought to guard against memory loss and enhance intuition. In , Prince Albert commissioned a gothic-inspired diamond and emerald tiara for Queen Victoria. Made by royal jeweller Joseph Kitching, it featured 19 inverted pear-shaped emeralds, the largest of which weighs 15 carats.

Modern-day British royals are huge fans, too. The Duchess of Cambridge has a suite of emerald and diamond jewels that includes earrings, a necklace and bracelet. However, there are plenty of diamonds more expensive than emeralds of the same carat weight, especially fancy colored diamonds. The price is dependent on the quality of each individual gem, which makes giving exact prices impossible without the specifics of quality in mind. They are also evaluated differently, though both use the 4Cs of color, clarity, cut, and carat weight.

The 4Cs in emeralds and any other colored gem are heavily weighted for color, with clarity and cut coming after. Carat weight in any gem is not about quality, but acts as a gauge for rarity of the quality the first three Cs demonstrate. In diamonds, the 4Cs are equally weighted because of how clarity and cut lend themselves to making the diamond appear spectacular.

The round-brilliant cut we know today is derived from the Tolkowsky Cut, engineered by Marcel Tolkowsky to make diamonds shine as brightly as possible for part of a PhD topic. Assuming the 4Cs of quality for emeralds and diamonds are more or less equal, nice emeralds are a lot rarer than diamonds. The one exception to this is fancy colored diamonds.

Diamonds make up most of the jewelry industry anyways. Almost any jewelry case you look at will mainly feature diamond jewelry, maybe with a few other stones. In many cases the jewelry is set entirely with diamonds. Diamonds are graded at 10x magnification, while emeralds are graded without magnification.

An additional difference is their clarity types. I specify colored gemstones because diamonds have a completely different system for clarity grading. In the example above, Type I gems are very frequently eye-clean few, if any, inclusions visible. One example of this is aquamarines.

Type II gems typically have visible inclusions, and are a lot harder to find eye-clean. Most gems are Type II, including rubies and sapphires. There are extremely few Type III gems that are eye clean and inclusion-free. The ones that are clear receive huge price markups. Cut has different standards between diamonds and emeralds.

Part of a diamonds sparkle comes from how well it is cut, while emeralds do not receive this benefit from their cut. Emeralds and other colored gems are instead cut to preserve their weight, while maintaining as ideal a cut as possible.

In comparison to diamonds, the cut of colored gems is irregular looking. The only value that is evaluated the same way between emeralds and diamonds is their carat weight. Carat weight functions as a rarity gauge for all the other factors, and is used to determine the price based on quality. Rarity is the key factor to pricing any gem. Basic quality differences aside, emeralds are much rarer than diamonds. Diamonds alone account for half of the entire precious gem industry.

This includes emeralds, sapphire, rubies, topaz, tourmalines, moonstones, sunstones, and any other gemstone imaginable. If you walk down 47th through the famed diamond district of New York, most of the gems sitting in the windows are diamond and almost nothing else.