Here are The Ten Biggest Misconceptions About Emeralds: “ My emerald is from Columbia.” Oops! Columbia is a uni

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Here are The Ten Biggest Misconceptions About Emeralds: “ My emerald is from Columbia.” Oops! Columbia is a uni

Post by PinkDiamond »

From Ron Ringsrud's Emerald News, how many of these misconceptions about emeralds did you think were true? :?:

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Here are The Ten Biggest Misconceptions About Emeralds:

1. “ My emerald is from Columbia.” Oops! Columbia is a university and a river; Colombia is the source of the world’s finest emeralds, spelled with two o’s. You must get that right: You are now an emerald person! Say Col-OM-bia.

2. Emeralds are soft. Not true: emerald is harder than quartz or tourmaline and resists most scratching and wear. It is less hard than diamond and sapphire, however, and like all gems, it can be damaged if dropped or bumped hard. The complete discussion is on page 138, of the book Emeralds A Passionate Guide - available at http://www.emeraldpassion.com

3. Emeralds are heat-treated. No again! See Chapter 9. Emerald’s color is natural. Only its clarity is enhanced or treated.

4. My dollars from buying emeralds will end up in the hands of a paramilitary or narco-guerilla group in Colombia. That’s wrong. See Chapter 14 and the section on Fair Trade activities in Colombia, Chapter 14.

5. Emeralds are treated with green oil. Actually, only the very lowest-quality emeralds (emeralds that you will never see) have that. See page 173.

6. Mine owners have the best prices because they are at the source. Negative. This is a common and persistent misconception; see page 184. Also, gem prices do not rise in a steadily increasing curve from mine to retail jeweler. There are many incongruities in the market, which is precisely what makes the colored stones market so interesting (and profitable).

7. The better emeralds are the darker ones. Not quite. See the color discussion on page_119.

8. Emeralds are color enhanced. NOPE, color in emeralds is all natural, native; see Chapter 9.

9. Misconception #9 is that there are only TEN misconceptions.No!, there are fourteen (Ha Ha!)

10. A gem lab certificate is only good if it contains technical wording that’s hard to understand. Negative; read the way it should be in Chapter 10.

11. Bixbite is “red emerald.” No Again. The word emerald has over 2,000 years of name recognition behind it. Lazy marketers now want to attach it to words like bixbite (“red emerald”) and morganite (“pink emerald”). This terminology is just plain wrong. If Smuckers can make a success of themselves with that name, then so can bixbite.

12. You can look at a faceted emerald by holding it up to the light. Not true. Only do that if you want to make a gemologist laugh behind your back! See Chapter 4.

13. The most important color-causing trace element in emeralds is chromium. Not really. Recent findings indicate that vanadium is found in greater concentrations in even the best emeralds. The key to fine color is a lack of iron atoms. See page103.

14. Emeralds should be cut so that the pavilion angles allow a full return of light with no window. Well, not really. There are many exceptions to this rule that you will see at the end of Chapter 18.
PinkDiamond
ISG Registered Gemologist


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Re: Here are The Ten Biggest Misconceptions About Emeralds: “ My emerald is from Columbia.” Oops! Columbia is a

Post by SwordfishMining »

Emeralds are special as the greenest, but they are challenging to work. Emeralds are soft in that they can be full of cracks and inclusions that are natural fault lines which Im sure he goes into in the book. Oil does tend to hide them and the best emeralds are solid crystals with few inclusions. I like Bixbite Red and people are amazed its not Ruby. I hold faceted stones up to the light to look for fractures or zoning personally. But like we say in the valley, when you have a pocket open, you dig it out before leaving.
I'll jump over my shadow. https://www.virginvalleyopal.com"
Opals & more at my ESTY store https://swordfishmining.etsy.com"
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