Emeralds are some of the rarest gemstones on the planet – what causes all their inclusions, though?
All the inclusions often found within an emerald are a result of gas, liquid, or other solid materials being trapped in the stone as it forms within a rock. This can create ‘flaws’ in the gemstone known as inclusions, but it’s actually thought to improve the ‘authenticity’ of an emerald.
Read on to learn more about emeralds, their composition, and what makes them look so beautiful.
Perfectly Imperfect
When you think of fine quality gemstones, you imagine crystal-clear jewels, glittering in spotlights. You don’t immediately think of a flawed gemstone, riddled with cloudiness, fissures, and even cracks.
However, that’s apparently the opposite with emeralds, as there are those who believe a flawed emerald is as charming as a crystal-clear diamond. The unique fissures and flaws, known as inclusions, can permeate an emerald and still look beautiful.
It’s something to do with authenticity, with some of the unique inclusions creating what are often very interesting patterns. For example, there’s a ten-carat ‘trapiche’ emerald with a stunning star pattern running through it, owing to inclusions.
These inclusions occur throughout the millions of years it takes for an emerald to form. If there are any materials trapped within the stone as it grows, they can create these fissures and flaws.
As we’ve said, these inclusions are always unique and they can come in many different forms. You’ll see tiny, jagged lines, air bubbles, internal cracks or fissures, or stress fractures.
Inclusions can create issues when a gemstone is being cut, as they might present an area of weakness. More often than not, this means a jeweler must leave the inclusions in the stone, out of fear of breaking it.
As it is, an emerald isn’t particularly durable. They’re more prone to damage than their competition, the diamond, ruby, and sapphire stones.
With proper care, they’ll last a lifetime, but they’re easily scratched, cleaved, or chipped. They come in at around a 7.5 or 8 out of 10 on the Mohs scale, the spectrum used to gauge the hardness of a material.
For reference, a diamond is 10 on the Mohs scale.
Clear Cut Color
While an emerald with inclusions will sell perfectly well, it’s the clear gems that are most sought-after. They command an extremely high value and make up some of the most expensive emeralds in the world.
This is owed massively to the fact that they’re considerably rare – there are way more flawed emeralds than there are fine-quality gems.
Throughout history, there have been some particularly impressive emeralds sold at auction. They always cause a substantial fuss in the jewelry world, owing to their rarity, beauty, and (more often than not) size.
However, the vast majority of these emeralds are, as you might have guessed, flawed. It just goes to show the rarity of clear emeralds when all the most valuable examples in history have been flawed.
One great example is the Rockefeller Emerald, an eighteen-carat stone that sits perched atop a white gold ring. In 2017 it was sold for a record price of $305,516 per carat.
The jeweler who constructed the ring stated that while the clarity was ‘wonderful’, there were still inclusions present.
An even bigger emerald was the Flagler Emerald, weighing a huge thirty-five carats. It had a storied history and sold at auction in 2015 for almost three million dollars.
That too was flawed and riddled throughout with inclusions.
The Cursed Emerald
There is one particular emerald, reportedly the biggest in the history of the world, that deserves a mention here.
The Bahia Emerald is one of the world’s most expensive gemstones, and the most bizarre. Uncovered in Brazil in 2001, it’s allegedly cursed and has ruined the lives of anyone who comes into contact with it.
It’s an enormous stone, weighing just over eight hundred pounds, and it’s worth an estimated half-billion dollars. It’s been the subject of many lawsuits, with multiple parties battling to claim ownership of the massive gem.
In its relatively short history, it has been stolen, almost caused deaths, and allegedly been the root cause of people going to prison. It was also caught up and almost lost in the fateful Hurricane Katrina, in New Orleans.
And guess what? It’s riddled with inclusions.