Panjshir Emerald , Afghanistan

[rryba888786]

Hello

Recently I have a parcel of old Panjshir Emerald, sizes from 1.00 Ct - 32.95 Ct. All are of very good color n clarity. Biggets sizes is 32.95 , 14.50 ct , 11.70 ct , 8.60 ct , 8.50 , 7.00 ct and so on. Total Carat is 125.

I am confuse regarding the prices. Like what kind of prices this parcel can fetch. I am also attaching the photo of the few selected stones. Any kind of information regarding the Panjshir Emerald will be helpful.

Regards'

 

[chrono]

No photo yet. Are these in the rough or are they already faceted? Are these treated (how invasive and what type) or untreated?

 

[rryba888786]

Hello

I am attaching the photos aagain, these are already faceted few years back. No treatment has done on them, 100% Natural. As these are cutted few years back, 2-4 pieces need to recut to bring out the best of the pieces. There are few fractures in the size of the stones and few black spots as well on few pieces from behind, but the bigger sizes have +80% clarity with fabulous color.

In photos its hard to tell the color n clarity, its always better in front of eyes. If you need any more information kindly let me know. Hope to hear from you again.

 

[rryba888786]

Hello

I am attaching the photos aagain, these are already faceted few years back. No treatment has done on them, 100% Natural. As these are cutted few years back, 2-4 pieces need to recut to bring out the best of the pieces. There are few fractures in the size of the stones and few black spots as well on few pieces from behind, but the bigger sizes have +80% clarity with fabulous color.

In photos its hard to tell the color n clarity, its always better in front of eyes. If you need any more information kindly let me know. Hope to hear from you again.

 

[Jawahir]

Hi,

I recently bought a 49 carat lot of Panjshir emerald ... guess I made a good investment, I like the colour, please share your views.

K

 

[Roger Dery]

Hello Jawahir,
Welcome to Pricescope. Can you share what type of coating is on the surface of the faceted stones?

 

[VapidLapid]

Fascinating

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/panjshir-emerald-afghanistan1.152504/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/panjshir-emerald-afghanistan1.152504/[/URL]

 

[Indylady]

I never get the point..

 

[Jawahir]

Thanks Roger,

What I heard from the seller, a trusted friend, that the stones were cut not very professionally and it needs a proper cut, polish and treatment. Could you please advice what to do? The stones are between 5 to 10 carats in size.

Thanks,

Jawahir

 

[Roger Dery]

What I heard from the seller, a trusted friend, that the stones were cut not very professionally and it needs a proper cut, polish and treatment. Could you please advice what to do? The stones are between 5 to 10 carats in size.

Hello Jawahir,
In your earlier post you stated:
"guess I made a good investment, I like the colour, please share your views."

Jawahir, in the interest of sharing my views, in the trade we have always found it is best to acquire accurate information before sharing one's views. So that I may arrive at a position of knowledge of your goods where I can share my view, I previously asked you: "Can you share what type of coating is on the surface of the faceted stones?"

Perhaps you can answer my question, then we may be able to render an opinion.

 

[Jawahir]

Thanks Roger,

I understand and appreciate your advice. To be honest all I know about the stones sofar is that it originates from mines of Panjshir and is cut in Karachi (Pakistan) that is all I could find information about... though I will keep asking those guys for more info. Still would love to hear from you more about these stones, would attach some more pictures.

Best, Jawahir

 

[Jawahir]

a piece of it...

 

[mastercutgems]

Hello rryba888786

If they were mine and the deal was done; I would take at least one of them and send it to an accredited lab AGL, GIA, etc. and have them do a report on them for treatment/classification as it would be almost impossible for anyone on here to make an educated assessment of your emeralds.

They have a nice color and clarity is typical of that location; but there seems to be some type of coating, oil, etc. on the surface; or it may be poor polish as one can not really tell without them being in hand to do proper tests with proper equipment...

Good Luck

Most respectfully;

Dana

 

[Jawahir]

Thanks Dana, would take one for certification, hope they haven't gone through too much of a treatment!

jawahir

 

[Indylady]

They look completely synthetic to me--Ebay has tons of 'museum sized' and 'museum quality' pieces like that for sale.

 

[Barrett]

They are nowhere close to the high standard Panjshir emeralds are known. I used to deal in rough and cut stones from panjshir valley shipped direct to me from Namak Mandi. The stones you posted are typical of what I was offered many many times as the so-so parcel. Fine panjshirs and even just "good" ones are snapped up quickly and usually don't even make it to market and if they do they have a pretty hefty price tag compared to other emeralds. those gems are borderline between being okay and being decent..it's that middle ground where the clarity is sub par and not good enough to class it as a fine gemstone.
A couple things jump out at me offhand...the size of your stones is fairly large. This sort of throws up a red flag since typically Panjshir are smaller with the

largest mined being 15cts[endquote]. That right there should tell you something may be fishy when you are that wouyld be considered very large for that location and extremely rare. The color doesn't seem like panjshir to me either...but keep in mind lots of variables are involved so thats just an assumption. Those stones look, in my opinion, like Swat emeralds which are also from pakistan. Swat emeralds sell for much less than panjshir stones. I learned from buying lots of stones and dealing with multitudes of dealers and sellers in Peshawar and namak mandi that many will attach the name Panjshir to swat material to give it more prestige and sellability. My main supplier for all stones even told me it's very prevelant. Even in Peshawar amongst the dealers and suppliers Panjshir emeralds are held on a higher pedestal. Panjshir material cost a lot of money and you quickly notice it when you have experience buying lots of other stones and you decide to delve into Panjshir.

A little side note I also picked up...many of the people I came in contact with over the years who dealt or had their hand in emeralds say that panjshir is even better or just as good as the best colombian material. I am not sure and wouldn't try and put a label or compare something like that as it's hard to beat the best colombian but I have had more than a few people express this to me and who had experience dealing with fine and large quantities of emeralds from all over. I will say the overall color and clarity of Panjshir is better than colombian when compared pound to pound. More finer crystals come out tha n most any other emerald mine. If you had a random handful of panjshir and a random handful of colombian you would have more better quality crystals in the handful from panjshir.

Even small less than optimum quality emeralds from panjshir cost more than you would expect. The color on the oens that passed through my hands always seemd to be good regardless of clarity or form. So the low grade crystals and rough would have great color even if they lacked in other departments. I never did get anything from there large than...ohhh..something like 3-5cts(rough/crystal form) that was what I would consider facetable. I could never afford anything bigger and the 1ct-1.5-2cts that could be faceted from those pieces of rough and any finished stone gleaned from them would be worth a pretty penny especially if you broke the 1ct mark. I was the only person on ebay for about a year that ever had any Panjshir emeralds..not one other person had rough/gem/crystals from there. Finally another guy started selling some after a year and he sold mostly 1/2cts. and slightly larger never breaking the 1ct mark and they were pretty pricey.

Just remember many many times Swat emeralds are passed off as Panjshir. Swat valley produces copius amounts of emeralds and at any time I can find a large parcel of stones at the drop of a hat. Panjshir on the other hand are fairly hard to get and come in spurts. Even my dealer would have to "take orders" for any material from there. He had large amounts of every other stone that was found in the pak/afghan area but when it came to Panjshir him and many others, who had established stores and markets in namak Mandi and bought directly from the miners, would have to go ask each of the other dealers and competitors and hope someone might have a stashed lot of stones or knew someone that did. Two of my main suppliers even ordered fine quality colombian stones to supplement the lack of panjshir. This is not a common thing for the majority of sellers in Peshawar to do and to have stones shipped to them from colombia just so they can have something that is in the same class. If you asked for Swat it was always available and almost all dealers and sellers have material in stock. It is the "thang" to do with many people over there and it happens alot more than you think. If I still bought and sold material from there I could tell you roughly the mark up and discrepancy in price between panjshir and swat even when comparing stones of similar traits and qualities. It was very noticeable when I would bargain for parcels and stones from both places. I remember parcels of panjshir that were like 1-2 cts gemstones would cost the same amount as swat parcels that were composed of stones that were twice as big(3-5cts) or parcels that were double the number in the panjshir parcels ...so twice as many Swat stones for the same price as a panjshir parcel and the quality would be more or less the same(even though panjshir always had the better color with everything else being equal.

Here is what jim Allen said when we discussed panjshir material years ago when I first started buying stones.
If you take a colombian, and a panjshir and set them side by side, and ask 10 women which one they want - 10 will pick the punjshir
Of course thats just an opinion and should be taken as such but he has cut lots and lots of colombian material for more years than I have been alive and of all different qualitie from there plus he is one of the few cutters I know that have had experience and opportunity to cut panjshir on a some what regular basis.

Here is from the AIGS labratory website "the color and overall quality of fine Panjshir emeralds has now been reported to equal the very highest quality Colombian emeralds from the Muzo "...

Here os from the Litnon(gemline) webiste "This is a natural Emerald from the world famous Panshir Valley in Afghanistan. Panshir Emeralds are considered by many conniosseurs to be the finest Emeralds on the planet. So good that for years they were bought by the Colombians who passed them off as top quality Columbia Gems."

 

[T L]

I found this website on panjir emerald. I do not know how reputable they are, but they supposedly have examples of Panjhir emeralds.

http://panjshiremerald.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6&Itemid=53

Anyone else know about this site?

 

[Arkteia]

No but I remember that GemSelect was selling them about a month ago... maybe they still have some left. They looked very pretty (and GemSelect's pictures are usually true to color) but the one I liked was 0.48 ct I think and cost around $ 400.00. I did not jump the gun because I was preoccupied with another project and the price seemed high (but then, what do I know about emeralds?). Maybe there are still some on their website. They do not appear coated.

 

[Jawahir]

when i look at the pictures, they look synthetics, but I will blame the quality of the photos, see if you still think it that way when I took the picture with better light.

 

[chrono]

Really can't tell anything by the picture because:
1. Don't know if it's natural or synthetic
2. Don't know the level of treatment nor type
3. Can't really tell about the quality via pictures because the finer the emerald, the more a PITA it is to photograph.

That said, the size of the emeralds do send up red flags to me. At the very least, send one of the emeralds to GIA or AGL for testing to find out about the first three questions. I am also concerned when you talked about these being "investment" stones. Remember, trust BUT verify.

 

[T L]

I would send one of the stones to the AGL for a prestige origin report.

If the stone is deemed synthetic, they will not even issue a report, and I think you'll only be out S&H charges, but at least you'll know if it's natural. It's really not fair to properly id a synthetic over a forum in pictures. We can only guess, but until you send it to a lab for proper verification, you'll never know for sure.

 

[Jawahir]

I will take it a sample to a certified lab for a check, that is a very good advice. I have entered the gem market recently, coming from Panjshir myself, I have extensive access to the legitimate stone dealers, not only emerald but variety of Afghani precious stone. I have seen panjshiri emeralds larger than 15ct, would need to take some pictures not obviously for proof but for further knowledge and awareness about Afghanistan's fantastic precious resources. I do really appreciate your advice and insight, please continue to help me with improving my knowledge of the stones!

 

[Jawahir]

found the reference to this article on Panjshir emerald in many credible sites: http://www.geohavens.com/articles.php?article_id=137

 

[Hussainch]

They are nowhere close to the high standard Panjshir emeralds are known. I used to deal in rough and cut stones from panjshir valley shipped direct to me from Namak Mandi. The stones you posted are typical of what I was offered many many times as the so-so parcel. Fine panjshirs and even just "good" ones are snapped up quickly and usually don't even make it to market and if they do they have a pretty hefty price tag compared to other emeralds. those gems are borderline between being okay and being decent..it's that middle ground where the clarity is sub par and not good enough to class it as a fine gemstone.
A couple things jump out at me offhand...the size of your stones is fairly large. This sort of throws up a red flag since typically Panjshir are smaller with the

largest mined being 15cts[endquote]. That right there should tell you something may be fishy when you are that wouyld be considered very large for that location and extremely rare. The color doesn't seem like panjshir to me either...but keep in mind lots of variables are involved so thats just an assumption. Those stones look, in my opinion, like Swat emeralds which are also from pakistan. Swat emeralds sell for much less than panjshir stones. I learned from buying lots of stones and dealing with multitudes of dealers and sellers in Peshawar and namak mandi that many will attach the name Panjshir to swat material to give it more prestige and sellability. My main supplier for all stones even told me it's very prevelant. Even in Peshawar amongst the dealers and suppliers Panjshir emeralds are held on a higher pedestal. Panjshir material cost a lot of money and you quickly notice it when you have experience buying lots of other stones and you decide to delve into Panjshir.

A little side note I also picked up...many of the people I came in contact with over the years who dealt or had their hand in emeralds say that panjshir is even better or just as good as the best colombian material. I am not sure and wouldn't try and put a label or compare something like that as it's hard to beat the best colombian but I have had more than a few people express this to me and who had experience dealing with fine and large quantities of emeralds from all over. I will say the overall color and clarity of Panjshir is better than colombian when compared pound to pound. More finer crystals come out tha n most any other emerald mine. If you had a random handful of panjshir and a random handful of colombian you would have more better quality crystals in the handful from panjshir.

Even small less than optimum quality emeralds from panjshir cost more than you would expect. The color on the oens that passed through my hands always seemd to be good regardless of clarity or form. So the low grade crystals and rough would have great color even if they lacked in other departments. I never did get anything from there large than...ohhh..something like 3-5cts(rough/crystal form) that was what I would consider facetable. I could never afford anything bigger and the 1ct-1.5-2cts that could be faceted from those pieces of rough and any finished stone gleaned from them would be worth a pretty penny especially if you broke the 1ct mark. I was the only person on ebay for about a year that ever had any Panjshir emeralds..not one other person had rough/gem/crystals from there. Finally another guy started selling some after a year and he sold mostly 1/2cts. and slightly larger never breaking the 1ct mark and they were pretty pricey.

Just remember many many times Swat emeralds are passed off as Panjshir. Swat valley produces copius amounts of emeralds and at any time I can find a large parcel of stones at the drop of a hat. Panjshir on the other hand are fairly hard to get and come in spurts. Even my dealer would have to "take orders" for any material from there. He had large amounts of every other stone that was found in the pak/afghan area but when it came to Panjshir him and many others, who had established stores and markets in namak Mandi and bought directly from the miners, would have to go ask each of the other dealers and competitors and hope someone might have a stashed lot of stones or knew someone that did. Two of my main suppliers even ordered fine quality colombian stones to supplement the lack of panjshir. This is not a common thing for the majority of sellers in Peshawar to do and to have stones shipped to them from colombia just so they can have something that is in the same class. If you asked for Swat it was always available and almost all dealers and sellers have material in stock. It is the "thang" to do with many people over there and it happens alot more than you think. If I still bought and sold material from there I could tell you roughly the mark up and discrepancy in price between panjshir and swat even when comparing stones of similar traits and qualities. It was very noticeable when I would bargain for parcels and stones from both places. I remember parcels of panjshir that were like 1-2 cts gemstones would cost the same amount as swat parcels that were composed of stones that were twice as big(3-5cts) or parcels that were double the number in the panjshir parcels ...so twice as many Swat stones for the same price as a panjshir parcel and the quality would be more or less the same(even though panjshir always had the better color with everything else being equal.

Here is what jim Allen said when we discussed panjshir material years ago when I first started buying stones.
If you take a colombian, and a panjshir and set them side by side, and ask 10 women which one they want - 10 will pick the punjshir
Of course thats just an opinion and should be taken as such but he has cut lots and lots of colombian material for more years than I have been alive and of all different qualitie from there plus he is one of the few cutters I know that have had experience and opportunity to cut panjshir on a some what regular basis.

Here is from the AIGS labratory website "the color and overall quality of fine Panjshir emeralds has now been reported to equal the very highest quality Colombian emeralds from the Muzo "...

Here os from the Litnon(gemline) webiste "This is a natural Emerald from the world famous Panshir Valley in Afghanistan. Panshir Emeralds are considered by many conniosseurs to be the finest Emeralds on the planet. So good that for years they were bought by the Colombians who passed them off as top quality Columbia Gems."

Hey do you still sell panjshir emeralds?

 

[tonyandersson]

Hi everybody

I need reliable emerald seller in Panjshir if any of you knows please let me know.

 

[Barrett]

Dredged up from the bowels of the CS gemstone vault....
I WAS the only seller on Ebay for a half year or so, way back then, of true Panjshir valley emerald rough. All under a carat, of course......I ain't rich..LOL