Buying An Emerald Ring The 4 Cs

Photo: TK, trying o locate source

Yesterday I popped into Tiffany & Co. to try on a few emerald rings for fun. I wanted to start with heirloom-quality stones to refresh my memory on their appearance and price, and oh boy, did Tiffany deliver! The emeralds are stunning, ultra expensive ... yet small for the price tag. The design and quality of stones are top-notch, making even a 1/4 carat of emerald surrounded by diamonds ring a showstopper. As much as I love looking and trying Tiffany rings on, the price points for tiny stones are beyond what I wish to pay ... and for the purpose of this post I'll assume you, too, want a bigger stone for less money. So today, let's go shopping for emerald rings!

Photo: emcogem

Here are the 4 Cs that determine the value of an emerald, especially vital if you seek a larger stone:

1) Color - The color is the most important characteristic, but it is also the most subjective of the 4. Emeralds are a variety of beryl, a mineral whose green color comes from the impurities of chromium along with vanadium that are determined by where they are mined. Often customers prefer darker greens over lighter stones and a blue-green hue (cool) over yellow-green (warm). It doesn't make one better than the other, yet due to demand does influence price. Coveted Columbian emeralds tend to be bluish-green. (Click here for countries where emeralds are mined.)

When jewelers examine the color of emeralds they also

consider tone and saturation. The tone is the lightness and darkness of the emerald on a scale of 0 (white) to 10 (black). Fine emeralds fall between 2 and 8 on the scale. In this range, ultimately the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As it turns out, customers gravitate to #5, #6 and #7 in color↑. I think of saturation (another name for tone) as the opaqueness or transparency of an emerald. I value opaqueness in leggings, but I desire as much transparency for the $buck$ as I can get in a colored gemstone as it shines more!

The Maximilian emerald 

2) Cut (My 2nd important characteristic is usually listed as 3rd by experts. Trust me: I'm right, and they're wrong!🙂 Let me explain why.) The skill of the cutter determines the beauty and larger-look of the stone. A great cut maximizes the color, size, brilliance and takes note of the inclusions in the emerald. In fact, of the 4 precious gemstones, emeralds are per se a fractured stone. Its fractures/inclusions, called Jardins, are accepted as a natural characteristic and mark of its unique beauty. Emeralds without Jardins are 99.99 out 100 times fake.

3) Clarity - We discussed how an expert cut enhances the clarity of a gem. More light bounces off of it. Unlike diamonds, impurities and inclusions -- Jardins -- in emeralds are common and considered part of its natural beauty. Jewelers say: Each emerald has its own fingerprint of how it was formed by nature billions of years ago. With diamonds (carbon), you want them as clean as possible, yet nature rarely makes an emerald (beryl) clean (without Jardins). In French Jardin means "garden." And if an emerald doesn't have them, have it tested. You're either set for life ... or own a fake! 

Wallis Simpson's ring

4) Size - As with all gemstones, bigger stones are rarer so prices rise exponentially per carat. Each additional carat of the same quality of emerald more than doubles and triples in price. Rats!!!

Just like emeralds, shoppers are all unique, so different strokes for different folks. Personally, I would forget about buying heirloom-quality emeralds. You'll have to pay $8,000+ for 1/4 carat stone surrounded by 1/2 carat of tiny diamonds. Paris Hilton, you can ignore my advice. 

😍Macy's comes through again! What an Effy beauty on a budget!!

Everybody else, if you consider commercial-grade stones, a 2-carat emerald is not cheap either, yet reasonable and doable as a luxury splurge for a working person on a budget (especially during a Macy's jewelry sale)! Moreover, a stone over 2 1/2 carats gets very expensive, what you would pay for a car, or the downpayment of a house.

Every splurge should be worth the money spent! When the verdict is, "I LOVE it," without going broke, it is.💚


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