First an introduction: I am one of those lucky U.S. service members on vacation in Afghanistan (not Kabul). I fell in love with colored gems a few years ago in East Africa and I have been studying/collecting ever since. I am not interested in investing or making a find of the century, I am just looking for pretty sparkles for less than I would pay in the States; right now I am mostly hunting cool looking tourmaline. But since this is Afghanistan everyone wants to show me emeralds, so here is my question…
Is there a synthetic or simulant that shows green in a Chelsea filter and BOTH the Hanneman synthetic emerald filter and support filter? I have seen several parcels of small emeralds “from Panshir” that all show a grayish pink response to the Chelsea and green in the synthetic filter, they are rather opaque, have inclusions that look like the book examples I have seen and I believe they are probably real. I have also run across dozens of larger, 1ct to 5ct, stones that show GREEN in all three filters and show 2 colors in the dichroscope but the difference is slight. They have inclusions some are familiar but some look like nothing I can find an example of. What do you think they are? The pricing for all the stones generally runs about $80-$170 a carat after you talk them down for a day…bargaining has gotten easier since western militaries started packing up the camps.
Here are two examples:
1) 3.87ct, even body color in immersion cell, grayish-red brown to Chelsea, green to Hanneman synthetic, two distinct colors in the dichroscope and “orange flash” in one longer fracture
2) 5.05ct, stones goes very light in immersion cell, paler around girdle but still all green, green to all filters, very weak response to dichroscope (if I am not imagining it) and inclusions look like tiny cracks…almost like tourmaline fractures but smaller and scattered all around, not in lines or in any one direction
I appreciate your thoughts,
Best Regards~ Lendrea
Is there a synthetic or simulant that shows green in a Chelsea filter and BOTH the Hanneman synthetic emerald filter and support filter? I have seen several parcels of small emeralds “from Panshir” that all show a grayish pink response to the Chelsea and green in the synthetic filter, they are rather opaque, have inclusions that look like the book examples I have seen and I believe they are probably real. I have also run across dozens of larger, 1ct to 5ct, stones that show GREEN in all three filters and show 2 colors in the dichroscope but the difference is slight. They have inclusions some are familiar but some look like nothing I can find an example of. What do you think they are? The pricing for all the stones generally runs about $80-$170 a carat after you talk them down for a day…bargaining has gotten easier since western militaries started packing up the camps.
Here are two examples:
1) 3.87ct, even body color in immersion cell, grayish-red brown to Chelsea, green to Hanneman synthetic, two distinct colors in the dichroscope and “orange flash” in one longer fracture
2) 5.05ct, stones goes very light in immersion cell, paler around girdle but still all green, green to all filters, very weak response to dichroscope (if I am not imagining it) and inclusions look like tiny cracks…almost like tourmaline fractures but smaller and scattered all around, not in lines or in any one direction
I appreciate your thoughts,
Best Regards~ Lendrea
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