Question about yellow colored stones

[kiwi]

I''m looking to get an affordable 2.5ct yellow colored stone ring. Can someone please tell me what colored stone most closely resembles (briliance, durability, etc.) a canary yellow diamond? So far, I''ve looked at yellow sapphires and citrines. Are there any other stones? Also, where is the best place to purchase colored stones online? I would greatly appreciate any information.

 

[valeria101]

There is no shortage of yellows. Technically, none of the wearable natural yellow gems gets close to the 'sparkle' of the diamond... but I would not give this as a precise statement: yellow diamonds do not get cut for optimum brilliance, so... yellow other things could compare favorably to them.

Although there are many yellow crystals, intense yellows as in "intense" diamonds are matched, in my view, only by sapphire and some garnets, also yellow beryl (or Heliodor) can come close. Citrine is almost always oragish when the color gets decently saturated, and the low refraction index makes it vastly different from diamond.

Here are some examples (of gems and shops):

Yellow Beryl

Yellow Beryl and Sapphire

Yellow sapphire

more Yellow sapphire

and one more

plus one unusual garnet

If you want to inspect the whole range of yellow, faceted material... oh well, sites like Lapilia, Multicolour, Thaigem could probably give and example of each and every type.

Does this help? Questions welcome

...

 

[elmo]

I've heard that the gemstone that is closest to fancy intense yellow diamond is the canary yellow tourmaline coming out of Malawi. It's a little soft but I think the refractive index is fairly high. I've seen one or two and they're nice. The not quite as fine material tends to have a greenish secondary color which I don't care for. There's a killer pear up on Robert Genis' site www.preciousgemstones.com, and Pala has imported a lot of this. From what I hear a large part of this goes to Japan though. Maybe some of the pros here know more about it.

 

[valeria101]

Yellow Tourmaline would be an intereating choice, but I doubt tourmaline can look more reflective than sapphire in any cut, given RI. (Tourmaline 1.62/1.64 ; Sapphire 1.76/1.77 ; Garnet 1.72/1.74 ; Citrine 1.54/ 1.55 ; Beryl 1.55/1,58, Diamond 2.4 )...

Yellow tourmaline is rather rare and exotically priced - sure so. Given these two factors, the stones may be better cut too. Probably the more difficult part of finding "something yellow and sparkly of about 2.5 cts resembling a diamond" will be to find a decently cut stone of no matter what species, I guess..

 

[Richard M.]

Hi,

Another natural stone that might do the job is Mali garnet(mainly a blend of grossular and andradite). Certain hues of Mali, like this image, have a strong resemblance to intense yellow diamond and are very reasonably priced.

With an R.I. of approx. 1.77 and sub-adamantine luster, well-cut Malis have exceptional brilliance and sparkle along with very high dispersion in some colors. Dispersion (and R.I.) vary with the proportion of andradite to grossular in any given stone. The style of cutting also influences dispersion which can range from .028 to a very high .057. The hardness is slightly above 7.

On the down side, it may be hard to find a Mali of the size needed in the right color, clarity, cut, etc. The majority of yellowish stones have a definite green component and tend to be smaller than the approx. 9 mm. of a 2.5 ct. diamond. Larger stones are seldom entirely clean.

Kiwi, maybe you should also consider man-made stones like yellow CZ, distinctly yellow Moissanite or lemon yellow YAG (yttrium aluminum garnet). They are very brilliant and affordable with the exception of Moissanite which is pricey in that size.

Richard M.

 

[valeria101]

Hm... I know this one has it's issues, but a 2 carat stone should not show all that much bi-refringence as glowing yellow color and serious sparkle

The picture comes from HERE