Emeralds - The Green Gemstones The majority of women like jewellery, Many men do as well, but they tend

to pref er gadgets and watches. In many countries women store their wealth in jewellery as exemplified by the Fifties song "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend". Asian wo men in particular accumulate gold. However, precious stones and precious metals are by and large perceived to be ve ry valuable. Leaving the value of the piece aside, most people have a favourite colour. Some prefer yellow gold, others prefer white. Some like the clarity and brillian ce of diamonds, whilst others prefer aquamarine, turquoise of green. In fact, high-quality green gems are among the most precious of all gemstones in cluding diamonds. Emeralds are the most costly green gemstones weight for weight . Gemstones are created underground at great pressures and they derive their colou rs from the minerals concerned in their composition. Gemstones are generally qui te hard, because they were formed under great pressure. In olden times, many people believed that gemstones had magical properties. The magical property attributed to emerald was the restoration of vision and the cur ing of eye diseases. In fact, emeralds are a form of beryl and derive their green colour from the ele ment chromium or sometimes vanadium. Emeralds have a hardness of seven to eight; diamonds are the hardest at 10 on the Mohs Scale. However, emerald te easily. These heless, the best of green all the has a great many inclusions (or faults), so it will shatter qui inclusions give emeralds their characteristic fuzzy look.Nevert emeralds are those that have a clear, transparent, even colour way through.

Weight for weight, an emerald of the best quality is more valuable than a diamon d of equivalent quality, which amazes most people. However, good diamonds are ea sier to find than good emeralds and hence the disparity in price. Become very suspicious of stones that are known as 'something' emeralds like Lit hia emeralds or oriental emeralds. These are normally cheaper gemstones which ar e referred to as emeralds in order to boost their value. These 'gems' are not em eralds and not worth a lot in comparison. Because of the value of real emeralds, many 'cheap emeralds' are either not emer alds at all or are very poor specimens that are being held together by resin. It is very difficult for a novice to know the difference between the decent and th e bad, which makes it vital to purchase from a reputable jeweller or dealer. Emeralds have been well-liked since the days of the pharaohs and there are emera ld mines in Egypt. There are also emerald mines in Siberia, Brazil, Zambia, Paki stan, South Africa, India and Australia amongst other countries. Despite the fact that there seems to be numerous sources of emeralds, good quali ty gemstones are still hard to get hold of at a good price. However, there are n o equivalents to emerald, so if you like the best, you can expect to pay handsom ely for it. As with all expensive gemstones, you ought to ask for a signed certificate of we ight and quality if you buy an emerald.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a number of topics, and is now concerned with <a href="http://jewellryandwatches.com/amber-in-poland/">Amber in Poland</a>. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at <a href="http://jewellryandwatches.com">Jewellry and Watches</a>.