Emerald

Item Description

When it comes to precious gems, the top four stones are Emerald, Diamond, Sapphire and Ruby. Emeralds are highly treasured, and throughout history, they have been admired for their beauty and rarity due to the fact that there truly are only a few places in the world that yield fine gem quality material. Aristotle wrote that owning an Emerald would help the wearer with victory in trials, settling litigation, success in business matters and even with poor eyesight. Later, emeralds were highly prized by the Incas and Aztecs when discovered in Colombia, and later the Spanish traded Emeralds around the world in exchange for precious metals and other resources. Although Brazil produces more Emeralds annually than any other country, Colombia dominates the trade by setting the standards for size and color. It is Colombian Emeralds against which all others are judged. Rarer and sometimes more expensive than a similar-sized Diamond. Here we have a medium green color "Oval Cabochon" cut gem from Colombia. The stone has some visible inclusions, but Emerald is classified as a Type-3 gemstone, which means that inclusions (even small ones) are typically present, and accepted by jewelers, collectors and dealers, so the inclusions in this gem would not be as frowned upon as they would in another stone. Sometimes dealers will actually use the term "jardin" (French for garden) to describe the inclusions inside of an Emerald.