EMERALD

People have admired emerald’s green for thousands of years. There are other green gems, like tourmaline and peridot, but emerald is the one that’s always associated with the lushest landscapes and the richest greens. Today, most gem dealers consider emerald to be the world’s premier green stone.

Emerald has many special qualities; however, colored stone professionals generally agree that color is the most important factor setting emerald’s value. The most desirable emerald colors are bluish green to green, with strong to vivid saturation and medium to medium-dark tone. Slight differences in hue, tone, and saturation can make a great difference in emerald value when other factors are equal. To understand the difference that slight variations in color can make, imagine two 1-ct. emeralds, both of the same high clarity. The first is very slightly bluish green, with strong to vivid saturation. The second differs only in that its saturation is medium strong. According to emerald price guides, the saturation difference of the second emerald can drop its per-ct value by half—almost a thousand dollars. A similar comparison between emeralds that weigh several cts would result in a difference in value of thousands of dollars.

TRAPICHE EMERALD

Trapiche (trah-PEE-chee) emeralds are extreamly unique, rare, prized form of emerlad that display dark rays that emanate from a hexagonal center, forming a star-like pattern. Some say the rays look like spokes on a wheel. These darks rays appear much like asterism, but unlike asterism, they are not caused by light reflecting from fine, parallel inclusions. They are instead, caused by dark carbon inclusions that happen to form in the same pattern.

The word "Trapiche" is the Spanish word for a sugar cane mill. Miners noticed that the emeralds’ ray pattern resembled the mills’ gears. And to display best star like effect, cutters usually fashion trapiche emeralds as cabochons or tablet to emphasize their unique pattern.