Emerald is the green variety of the mineral beryl and one of the most highly prized all gems. Emerald is the birthstone for May and the zodiac stone for those born under Cancer's sign. Throughout history emerald has been one of the most desired and coveted of gems. Associated with Venus, the Roman goddess of love, the emerald was believed to bestow upon the wearer faithfulness and unchanging love. Emerald belongs to the gem family beryl. Colombia, Brazil, and Zambia are the major producers, but there is an increasing shortage of fine emerald, and producers are having trouble keeping up with world demands.

Emerald Color: The finest quality emerald has the color of fresh young green grass- an almost pure spectral green, possibly with a very faint tint of yellow or blue. The highest quality emeralds have medium tone and are bright green with good color saturation. Color distribution should be uniform.

Emerald Tone: Refers to the depth of color (light or dark). The lightest possible tone is colorless. The darkest is black. Tone is another word for the degree of lightness or darkness. Judging the tone of a stone is difficult because it does not display a single, uniform tone. To judge the tone of a stone, examine it face-up and look for areas of light and dark.

Columbian emerald is a deep green with a very slight yellow or blue undertone and is considered the finest. African emerald is also a nice shade of green with a blue undertone with a slight darkening effect which makes it slightly less valuable than columbian.

Emerald can have tones: "light-medium," "medium," "medium-dark," and "dark". Most prefer emeralds with medium tones in rings & emerald jewelry.

Emerald History: Green beryl's are called emerald, blue aquamarine. Green emerald expresses faithfulness and continuity. The coloring agent is chrome, sometimes vanadium. The color is very stable against light and heat. The color distribution is often irregular; a medium green is most desired.

Often the emerald is clouded by inclusions. These are not classified as faults, but as evidence to the genuineness of the emerald (as compared with synthetics) plus the internal crystal structure gives truly beautiful unique tones.

Clarity From the collection at the National Museum of Natural History Emerald tends to have numerous inclusions and surface breaking fissures. Unlike diamond, where the loupe standard, i.e. 10X magnification, is used to grade clarity, emerald is graded by eye. Thus, if an emerald has no visible inclusions to the eye (assuming normal visual acuity) it is considered flawless. Stones that lack surface breaking fissures are extremely rare. Eye-clean stones of a vivid primary green hue (as described above) with no more than 15% of any secondary hue or combination (either blue or yellow) of a medium-dark tone command the highest prices.[4] This relative crystal non-uniformity makes emeralds more likely than other gemstones to be cut into cabochons, rather than faceted shapes. This large group of raw Columbian emeralds can be tumbled and used as they are to decorate items like (jewel box), lamps,collectable's, etc. or cut, faceted and polished by experienced jewelry makers. A real bargain for true Columbians.

• Physical Properties: Emerald Color: Emerald Green, green and yellowish green

• Emeralds Moh's Hardness: 7.5-8

• Emeralds Density: 2.67-2.78

• Emerald Chemical Composition: Aluminum Beryllium Silicate

• Emeralds Transparency: Transparent to Opaque

• Emeralds Refractive Index: 1.565-1.602

• Emeralds Dispersion: 0.014

• Emeralds Pleochroism: Definite; green, blue, blue green to yellow green

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