Aquamarine Facts

[Colored Gemstone Nut]

I am going to be adding colored gemstone info weekly to the colored stone section of this forum on different gems and varieties for consumers to use as a reference and guide to some basic textbook and practical knowledge information on any certain stone described. Anyone who would like to contribute gem info relating to the described topic..Please do so to expand the depth of information about any particular colored gem....

Aquamarine is a member of the beryl family and is recognized for it’s blue color. Aquamarines can vary a great deal in quality and price. Much of what you see in the US market is very light blue in color. Aquamarine can be a very rich blue color that will rival a nice sapphire. Darker blue colors go overseas to Europe or Japan since the demand and prices are higher. very light blue colors are in the range of a few dollars per carat. The natural aquamarines will have an ocean blue/green color that is fairly rare and can be quite expensive. Darker blue non-heat treated aquamarine prices can range from 800-1000.00 per carat for fine naturals . Natural aquamarines will be a blue/green color rather than just the blue. A really fine aqua will have a medium strong blue color with perhaps a hint of green, or if it has not been heat treated a strong bluish green color. It will also be free of eye visible inclusions and well cut with minimal windowing & exceptional color depth. Due to color depth being a important factor, cutters often facet this stone using various barion or emerald cuts which can add depth and bring out a richer blue color to this gem being they are deeper cuts. Most blue aquamarines have been heat treated from other colors to the blue and should be fairly inexpensive, and heating is considered normal practice in the trade to bring out the blue and eliminate any secondary colors. Heat treating usually makes the green color disappear and the stones are more pure light blue. The color of aquamarine is due to trace amounts of iron impurities in the gems crystal structure. Imitations include Synthetic blue Spinel & Blue Topaz. Aquamarines are found in Madagascar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Zambia and Mozambique. The most highly prized source of this gemstone is located in Brazil from the Santa Maria de Itabira mine .

-Josh Rioux

Sitka, Alaska

Attached Pictue is a Concave Faceted design by Richard Homer........

 

[Colored Gemstone Nut]

Ooops I meant to add this picture of Aquamarine, not the blue topaz, although both are stunning.




-Josh Rioux


Sitka, Alaska

 

[valeria101]

Hi!

Great Idea! How about posting some thoughts about colored stones grading? There have benn quite a few Qs on the forum about this... I bet it would help. Thanks alot for bringing life back in this 'colored stones' section!

 

[Colored Gemstone Nut]

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On 10/14/2003 11:35:35 AM valeria101 wrote:





Hi!

Great Idea! How about posting some thoughts about colored stones grading? There have benn quite a few Qs on the forum about this... I bet it would help. Thanks alot for bringing life back in this 'colored stones' section!
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I think the Wink Jones article posted on the pricescope home page covers great viewpoints in colored gem grading. Here's the thread..

Buying a colored gem?

I will say that colored gem grading involves in depth assessment of the tone, depth, and richness & region of a particular gem and it's color. There is more involved in color grading of other precious gems compared too traditional diamond grading. A well versed gemologist can give crucial insight to what the value of a certain gem is versus the set standards incorporated in grading diamonds.

Unique differences are established between diamond grading and grading other precious stones. Colored stone grading bares more weight on being interpreted by the professional assessing the piece. Diamonds have a set grading system and master stones to compare the different shades of colors.

Other precious stones (ruby for instance) involve an evaluation more by the trained person doing the appraisal, contrary to the set standards outlined for diamond grading. It is paramount to find a well rounded gemologist to do this who has a broad range of experience. A GIA degree is a great start, but experience speaks volumes. Experience plays an important part in the grading of all gems but is more important when it comes to grading other precious gemstones besides diamonds.

This is one of the reasons a "Pricescope" does not exist for colored gems. There are many more factors which attribute to the price which involve a more in depth look into the characteristics of the stone. You might find a 1 carat Burmese natural sapphire for around $3,000. You might find the same 1 carat Burmese sapphire which was cut a little shallow and who's color is a little lighter which would bring down the price in some cases substantially. More critical factors to analyze which attribute to the complexity of colored stone grading versus traditional diamond grading....

Warm Regards...

-Josh Rioux

Sitka, Alaska /idealbb/images/smilies/wavey.gif

 

[aqccorp]

I love the deep sapphire blue Aquamarine, but it's very hard to come by and runs about $1500+ per carat when you do find it. I have been able to compile a small collection.

 

[valeria101]

Hm... yeah, is harder to take all those colors and different materials into account. After all, see how complicated the grading of just one gem (the diamond) got if really taken to hart, and this was a comparable straightforward case: a simple white mass qualified by optics and hardness, with inclusions always not desirable. However hue, tone and saturation are perfectly quantifiable (and communicable numerically online, just like those famed crown & pavilion angles) as are the optics of each gem material. As far as I know, the color factors are already scaled for evaluating* pricing colored stones: only the actual grades (ranges of positions on sclaes) are more loose. As for cut, hasn't the same Russian company which produced the diamond cut grading software just came up with a version for colored stones? I am quite curious to know more (no time these days

) given how different the existing criteria are in colord stones. Also, I know that cut charts for colored stones are designed with the optical properties of the stones in mind (aside typical shape or the rough and such). In all these details it seems that there is great potential to put together buying guidelines... if not a grading system (which is probably not feasible given the true natural rarity of most gem-grade colored things). Any thoughts? PS: Unfortunately, even if available online, most material I mentioned is proprietary, so no cut and paste.

 

[Mara]

I love the very pale greenish blue aquamarines, is there a good site to view them at? Also, if I wanted to get something like this how much do they run per carat? I guess if I wanted the pale color it would be untreated?

 

[valeria101]

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On 12/10/2003 1:33:34 AM Mara wrote:


I love the very pale greenish blue aquamarines, is there a good site to view them at? Also, if I wanted to get something like this how much do they run per carat? I guess if I wanted the pale color it would be untreated?
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Depending on how pale is "pale"... Compared to other blue gems all almost all aquas are somewhat pale given their trademark lighter tone. White beryl (Goshenite) sells for a few dollars per carat and only premium cuts are worth more (paying for the cutting, not the material). The very pale shades increase in price from five to about 100 per carat in any size one could posibly wear. The octagon cut in the post above is not a pale stone, but rather 'medium-light' blue.

Try multicolor.com for a few aquas of somewhat-better-than-commercial color. I could not think of better customer relations than this place, if you go so far as to drop a Q. Acstones has a few well chosen pieces. Given the low cost of rough, these aquas are really worth having custom cut into something awesome looking: if not in a rush, I'd consider this seriously.

Heating.... well. In aquas heating does not necesarily make color deeper 9as in sapphires) or more even (as in sapphires, again) but rather less GREEN. Greenish-yellowish blue aqua is really not very sellable, few appreciate it and gets heated to retain only the blue component of the color. In a ny saturation (pale or not) non-greenish non-heated aquas are not a very common site at all. Besides, in this price range, not oo many bother dispuring the benefits of heating at all. Other treatments are not that common since large, clean rough is readily available and more sophisticated intervention would not really pay.

I don't know what their stock looks like now, but I used to like Creativegems, Mtlilygems, GGGems (believe it or not!) and Mineralminers for a good browse

See Mineralminers too and if you want some shamesly inflated prices for aqua look at Awesomegems.

Hope this does some good...

 

[Mara]

I looked at multicolor.com the other night and they had some nice stuff. I am just totally uneducated on the cuts. They had some beautiful looking ovals that were eye clean for not alot of $$...and untreated. I like the bluish-green color, not just blue or just green. However, some of the ovals looked better than others, so it was hard to determine what it would look like in person. A few of the ones I liked were not expensive, around $300 or so, so I could definitely get one for fun, but I'd like to make an educated decision before purchasing. Maybe I will post a few options here and see what the colored experts think

 

[valeria101]

Great!
Multicolour's aquas in that price range are "native cut" unless otherwise noted. This means that those are not exactly masterpieces, but they look good nevertheless. Overall symmetry and lack of "window" in such stoes are about as much as one can ask. Let's see the choices!

This is rather nice...

Did I mention Africagems? Their aqua selection surely deserves a look

 

[IPGirl0]

Hi, Josh! I'm brand new to this website, am ramping up on the learning curve about gemstones. I have a simple question: what does the grading system of AAA, AA and the like mean for aquamarines? I have not seen any clarity, cut, etc. ratings for aquas, but that could be just because of where I am looking for these. Many thanks for your spiritual guidance on this topic! IPGirl0

 

[valeria101]

I am not Josh... obviously, but I hope he will agree with this too...

There is no standard for these AAAA-whatever "grades". While using these letters has become quite common, their meaning remains at the discretion of each seller. Some sellers explain what the grades stand for, and than it is up to your knowledge and trust to decide what is that worth. The best way to make some sense of it all, is to find out what top aquamarines look like and what prices should be for different color shades an intensities. The task is not impossibly arcane: unlike diamond color grades, the color categories (grades are not defined as such) for colored stones are defined by visual impression alone. Slight differences (as between adjacent diamond 'colorless' grades) do not have a dramatic impact on aquamarine price.

As usual, it is hard to communicate gem color online... About Aquas, color saturation and the absence of green undertone makes a stone's value. Strongly colored aquamarine is rare and almost never seen in "commercial jewelry". While the pale blue and blue-green stones sold by the load in silver jewelry goes for below $10/ct, the prices can easily top $2k/ct in large stones of good color. Aquamarine is often heated to remove the green undertone of the rough in favor of the valuable blue. The color saturation of the stone is not affected by heating (as opposed to what happens in sapphire, for example), so heating does not affect aquamarine prices too much. Visible inclusions are not tolerated in Aquamarine...

This is a very abridged version of the aqua story. To dig a bit deeper, I should mention that stones of certain origins and color shades command higher prices, by tradition alone. This would be the case of Santa Maria aquamarine - a slightly greenish "sea blue" Brazilian variety. This origin (and color) still commands higher prices than the more blue and more consistently intense African stones which reached the market after Santa Maria had already established it's fame (and almost went extinct).

Does it show that I like this gem?

I sure do...

 

[valeria101]

 

[IPGirl0]

Are you Valeria or AnA? Thanks for the information on this amazing stone which is my birthstone, so I want to know about it for informed choices in buying me a birthday present. One of my co-workers have a dropdead gorgeous Brazilian aqua that is truely an aqua! It is so blue, it looks like a blue topaz. Her husband picked it out himself in Brazil. I should only be so lucky! Thanks also for the posting below with the pix-they are very pretty! I have not seen any like this for sale yet, but I probably have not looked in the right places! Now I want to go to Brazil! Yeah!

 

[valeria101]

Glad to help

BTW, no need to go "to the source" to get such material: just avoid the usual chain jewelry stores and address your request to a reputable jeweler who can source them as a broker. Also, you might find the Net quite helpful... After all, unless you acquire the needed training to identify, judge and price the quality of these stones, buying from outside a well organized market has great chances to turn into failure, unfortunately. This is not my job, but after a few years of interest in gems I learned more stories about the "latest fakes" than about the "latest gem material" itself. The stone from Madagascar listed above is still around (last time I checked) and online sources such as Palagems or Cherrypicked come may supply these qualities, or at least a decent collection to browse through. There is probably more top quality aquamarine on US territory than in Brazil and Africa combined... for better or for worse. I believe you can easily find what you are looking for!

Oh, sorry about the name confusion! "Ana" is the right version... but by now I am stuck with this alias I am afraid

 

[IPGirl0]

Ana, this is so helpful, I will check out these places and see what they have. The more I learn, the better educated choices I will make! I am excited to find this website as jewelry is my favorite thing! I can learn a lot by hanging here, if no one minds me hanging here! So what do you do with your accumulated knowledge? Are you a reputable jeweler or one who only loves jewels which is reputable in itself! Are you here in the US? I have a lot to learn, I am sure. Thanks for the sage advice about not running off to Brazil! No aqua envy here!

 

[valeria101]

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On 2/18/2004 11:47:32 PM IPGirl0 wrote:



So what do you do with your accumulated knowledge?

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This is a hobby

I love talking gems and jewelry and surely love hunting down unusual gems and sharing the experience. About reputation... no idea what an amateur's word is worth, but I usually strive to provide enough background for whatever I happen to post here to compensate.

As you may have seen, you can usually find some data about PS posters by clicking on their avatar and reading their "profile" - mine says that I am Romanian

An older post on "who's who" says a bit more. Hopefully, not far from what you might expect...

 

[IPGirl0]

Ana, you have a unique background, everything that I am not, but we have one thing in common: gemstones, except that I am a neophyte on a budget, but do not have to stay a neophyte for long. Now as to the budget issue, one has to play the lottery to win! Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I will go aqua hunting when I get a bit of free time! Take care and "talk" to you here in PS, a very cool place to hang!

 

[jumpa1]

Hi, I was wondering if any of you could give me a rough idea as to the value of an aquamarine rock that has been in the family for a long time. It weigh's 10.6 pounds, has been tested and is real although the origin is unknown. I don't have any pictures that I can upload yet, but I will try to get ahold of a digital camera. Can you give me any estimates or is it impossible to tell?

 

[valeria101]

Impossible to tell. The shape and origin would be crucial - since this sounds like a rock specimen rather than wearable (!) gem. No idea what this item might be sold and bought for (faceting material, carving, crystal specimen, all or neither of the above)... Pictures would help !

 

[Nicrez]

well is it in rough or is it faceted? at 10lbs you say? I assume it in rough. That's hard to determine just based on what you say and even pictures. Although some of these pros here could probably guess the right color (maybe even some good guesses on it's origin). I would say your safest bet is to find an appraiser HERE and see what they have to say when they examine it in person...Whoa what a load to walk around with! Hope you have BIG pockets!!! Let us know what the tests turn up!

 

[jumpa1]

It is 100% aquamarine there is no rock on the outside, its almost square, a little elongated. We had a piece taken to a jewel show in Seattle but we are hesitant to believe anything we hear. We have tried to find the origin of it, but its been a very long process and were weary that we may never know. I'll try to get a picture of it up by tomorrow. Thank you for the list of appraisers. We have been offered a large sum for it, but we don't want to be swindled. Is there a large difference in price for aquamarine? Does its origin change the price dramatically? What about color, what is a good color for an aquamarine that hasn't been treated or made into jewels yet? Should we go to a variety of appraisers or can we trust just a few?

Thank you all for the help.

 

[CaptAubrey]

what you're describing sounds like a carving-quality chunk of blue beryl. it's probably not worth more than a few hundred dollars.




the origin won't much affect the price; what will is the color, clarity, and quality of the crystal shape. a fine aquamarine specimen will be a clear, pale, slightly greenish blue; the crystal should be an elongated, attractively proportioned, hexagonal crystal. i've never heard of a specimen like that weighing 10 lbs; if one existed, it would be a museum piece worth tens of thousands of dollars.




take a look at this page and see if any of them resemble yours:




http://www.mineralminers.com/html/aqumins.stm




this should give you an idea of what yours is worth.

 

[Richard M.]

Just for a Reality Check everyone, gem quality aqua crystals can be huge. The one in the image weighed 56 pounds when this 1953 news magazine picture appeared. This image is a digital version of the original magazine photo which has been folded in a file for many years.

Discovered in Brazil, the crystal became the subject of an intense legal tangle over ownership. The date and specific location of its discovery became lost. It was shipped to a bank in the U.S. in 1946 by one of the claimants where this photo was made, but it was embroiled in litigation again. I never have found out what eventually happened to it.

It's plain there are many clean gemmy areas in the crystal that could have yielded thousands of carats of faceted stones.

 

[CaptAubrey]

boy, you learn something new every day. yikes!

 

[valeria101]

Hm... good color and decent texture would be enough to put good value into this, even if it is not trasparent. Also, if there are significant areas of good facet grade, the chunk can be valuable. Who knows?

 

[jumpa1]

Captaubrey I looked at the page you linked to, but those stones are too white. The one we have is greenish/blue and you can see right through it. I am trying to borrow my uncle's digital camera so we can take a picture of it. We did find out that it was found in the mountains of idaho, we should know where in idaho as soon as we can get ahold of a friend. We did have it tested before one piece was taken to the jewel show, and it was aquamarine, not sure if that is the same as blue beryl?

 

[strmrdr]

http://imnh.isu.edu/digitalatlas/geog/mining/gemstns.htm

according to that aquamarine has been found in idaho so its possible.

 

[strmrdr]

some pictures of smaller rough,
http://www.facetingrough.com/rough_aquamarine_natural.shtml

 

[valeria101]

Gee... unusual origin too. Sometimes these US stones find a niche of their own. It does sound like you have a nice piece of treasure on your hands