Emeralds

Nature 3 Minutes

The color green isn’t for everyone, but emeralds are in a class of their own. The stone’s hue is unmatched, making it one of the most sought-after gemstones on the market. Emerald has consistently surpassed other green gems like peridot and tourmaline with its lush blueish-green tones. But what’s an emerald without some fanciful history and lore? These quick and to-the-point emerald facts will help enliven your passion for this rare specimen, regardless of what you think about its coloring. 

Emerald Know-How

Emerald is one of the four recognized precious gemstones. The others are ruby, sapphire, and diamond.

Emerald is the birthstone of May and is the traditional gift for the 20th, 35th and 55th wedding anniversary in the US. 

Emerald is made from beryl just like the gemstone aquamarine.

Emerald gets its green coloring from trace amounts of chromium and/or vanadium.

A 1-carat emerald appears larger than a 1-carat diamond because of its lower density.

Emerald measures between 7.5 to 8 on the Mohs Scale of Hardness. Though they are durable stones, emeralds are susceptible to chipping and cracking. This makes emeralds more expensive to set into jewelry due to the risk involved. 

Colombia yields the largest amount of emeralds, contributing to more than 50 percent of all emerald production worldwide.

Emerald History

The oldest emeralds are about 2.97 billion years old.

The first known emeralds were mined in Egypt around 1500 BC.

One of Cleopatra’s favorite stones was emerald, and her passion for the stone was well documented.

Emeralds were discovered in South America in the 16th century by the Spanish. They were used by the Incas well before this discovery.

The Spanish traded emeralds across Europe and Asia for precious metals, which opened up the emerald trade to the rest of the world. 

Emeralds were first discovered in North America in the Yukon Territory in 1997, though large emerald deposits in the United States and further north are very rare. 

Synthetic sapphire and ruby were created in 1907, but synthetic emeralds were not created until 1935 when American chemist Carroll Chatham successfully grew his first 1-carat Chatham emerald. This stone is now on display at the Smithsonian Institute. 

Emerald Symbolism and Lore

According to ancient folklore, putting an emerald under your tongue would help one see into the future.Emeralds were thought to guard against memory loss and enhance intuition. Want to be sure what your lover is saying is real? Emerald was believed to act as a type of truth potion, helping decipher whether the lover’s vows were true or false. The soft, calming color of the emerald helped early lapidaries rest their eyes after an extended period of concentration. Today, emerald is still thought to relax and relieve eye strain. 

 Emerald Value

Top-quality emeralds can be worth more than diamonds on a per-carat basis.

Most emeralds have some type of inclusion or imperfection, and emeralds without imperfections or inclusions are very rare. Instead of the term imperfection, dealers like to reference emerald inclusions as an internal jardin (“garden” in French). 

Color, clarity, cut, and carat weight are four factors used to determine the value of an emerald. The most important of these four is color. The best color is vivid green or blueish-green with even saturation and no color zoning. 

Valuable, high-quality emeralds are very transparent and aren’t too dark or too light. Green beryl that is too light in color may not even be considered emerald by some gemologists. 

A gemologist judges a diamond’s clarity grade by using a 10x loupe. The clarity of an emerald is often assessed with the naked eye. 

An emerald pendant necklace owned by Elizabeth Taylor sold for $6.5 million in 2011, breaking down to about $280,000 paid per carat.

The Duke of Devonshire Emerald is one of the largest uncut emeralds weighing 1,383.93 carats.

Tips

Due to the inclusions within an emerald, it is not wise to clean these gems in an ultrasonic cleaner. Instead, clean gently by hand using warm water. 

Most emeralds are usually treated by filling the emerald with oil to fill in the cracks and help prevent unintentional chipping or cracking. You can coat emeralds with baby oil as an extra care precaution to help the stone from becoming overly brittle. 

Source: Spruce Crafts

Unknown's avatar

Published by pat frederick

Published

164 thoughts on “Emeralds”

  1. Good Morning All!
    can’t wait to read all about the town hall last night and impressions from everybody!
    looks like the sun might be out today, so I’m stoked!
    I was scolded this morning already by the orioles (I take the feeder in at night. lol)

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Morning, Pat! We had quite the downpour last night and big boomers but at least the wind wasn’t too bad – feeders all still in place. I recorded the town hall and haven’t watched it yet so I am avoiding all the clips posted at M’s. Wouldn’t you know? My heat won’t come on this morning. Fan works but no heat so in an hour or so, I’ll call for them to come and service it. This is why I pay extra every month for maintenance and they are usually very good about getting out here quickly. It’s not that cold, thankfully – 61 now – but I’m always cold so I will just layer up a bit for now.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Morning Filly!
        I’ve been waiting to get your impressions!!
        sorry I posted so many of other people’s –didn’t know you wouldn’t have watched last evening…oops!
        gees, I hope everything’s okay with your system!

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Oh, heavens, girl! Do NOT worry about that – others appreciated it greatly and I do have a scroll key! LOL – yeah, I’m not even going to think about worse-case scenario at this point. No sense in borrowing trouble – it will come soon enough! As I’m sure you noticed, I’m backing off on all the political stuff these days – I’m just so done right now….at a minimum, I need to take a break and then we’ll see where I go from there….

          Liked by 1 person

  3. Like

  4. Liked by 1 person

  5. Liked by 1 person

        1. You know, this isn’t a new question from me. Even before all this BS with COVID, way back when I was living in VA, I got into a discussion with my friend, David, about that very subject. He insisted that if 2 items reacted to the same stimulus in the same way, logic says they are the same, which is NOT true. In a general way, that is basically what they are assuming with carbon-dating.

          Liked by 1 person

    1. Good Morning ☀️
      “There is no business structure around this family except POLITICS.”
      Of how many congress critters could this same statement apply? They go to DC with lint in their pockets then within a handful of years, with no business underpinninpgs, amass a small fortune.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Morning Bill!
        and they conveniently allow themselves to be exempted from laws they create…that right there sounds like a violation of equal protection…

        Liked by 1 person

  12. Liked by 1 person

    1. “How does the FBI justify its actions against Trump supporters while protecting Joe Biden?”
      Here’s the rub…the FBI is NEVER compelled to justify any of its actions.

      Liked by 1 person

  20. Feisty Hayseed
    Feisty Hayseed
    May 11, 2023 12:56 am

    Sen. Joe Manchin Vows To Block All Biden Nominees To Environmental Protection Agency

    “This Administration is determined to advance its radical climate agenda and has made it clear they are hellbent on doing everything in their power to regulate coal and gas-fueled power plants out of existence, no matter the cost to energy security and reliability. Just last week, before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, every FERC Commissioner agreed that we cannot eliminate coal today or in the near future if we want to have a reliable electric grid. If the reports are true, the pending EPA proposal would impact nearly all fossil-fueled power plants in the United States, which generate about 60 percent of our electricity, without an adequate plan to replace the lost baseload generation. This piles on top of a broader regulatory agenda being rolled out designed to kill the fossil industry by a thousand cuts,” Manchin said in a statement.

    https://dailycaller.com/2023/05/10/manchin-block-biden-nominees-epa/

    Like

    1. No, not at the moment. I’m going to be taking a break for a while. I’m thoroughly fed up with politics all the way around! Not to mention people….ok, delete that. I’m taking a break – let’s leave it at that. I’m sure it’s been noticed, at least at M’s, that my posts have gone down substantially. I’m done doing all that work when people don’t even read it. No more!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. okay…no political stuff…how about any of your old Nebraska ones??
        everybody loves those.
        better yet…take a shot at cooking opens or craft ones…bwahahahaha

        Liked by 1 person

  27. clarion
    clarion
    May 11, 2023 10:03 am

    The E-Verify SCAM

    Karl Denninger

    We do not have a problem that requires complex, privacy-invading and abusable laws. You already must fill out a W-9 to work but many people in fact cheat. We know this. We also know that illegal aliens often buy stolen credentials, some of them of deceased persons, some duplicates of live persons and others that are simply made up — and in the case of duplicates most are wildly implausible and thus known bogus (e.g. someone is working on a farm in Idaho and yet allegedly also working at a tech company in Seattle.) E-Verify flags all of those immediately and yet nobody is dispatched to figure out who is the fraudster and who is the legitimate person, arresting the fraud-committing parties.

    This problem does not get solved because nobody in Washington DC wants it solved.

    Every single one of the Representatives and Senators, in short, wants the illegal aliens here and thus is directly and personally responsible for every crime they commit as an accessory before the fact.

    https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=248762

    Liked by 1 person

  28. OK, I’m watching the TH now……if, as some eternal optimists say, she is acting, she is a darned good actress! Then again, as naive as I am by nature, this all could have been play-acting on both their parts. WTF knows any more??!!??

    She was making the claim that he failed to tell the people to be peaceful and then failed to tell them to go home until after 4 pm. Of course, he has a convenient print-out in his pocket of what he ACTUALLY said! And the crowd roars! They are clapping and cheering every time he zings her and it is continuous thru-out.

    He goes thru the Tweet he sent that was taken down by Twitter – one with the video of him telling them to be peaceful at 2:30 pm and respect the police, commit no violations; the other an hour or so later telling people to go home, etc., etc. – and not put up again until after 4 pm – debunking her claim outright. “You didn’t report that because it was taken down!” He also talks about the speech he gave in the Rose Garden – “and I didn’t have a script, I don’t need a script, unlike the one in the WH now….” “That video was taken down and NEVER put back up!!!”

    “Why did you wait three hours to tell them to go home? They listen to you like no-one else. You know that!” (ignoring the Tweet was taken down) “Yes, I agree with that but Nancy Pelosi and the Mayor are in charge – I assumed they knew how to do their job. They weren’t.” ROFL

    “In that 3 hours, over 140 officers were injured that day and…..” “Excuse me! That was the one after the one I just read that was posted at 2 pm….” – she repeats: “Over 140 officers were injured that day….” “And Ashli Babbitt was killed.” “Yes” “You know what – she was killed and she shouldn’t have been killed and that thug that killed her…there was no reason to shoot her at blank range, cold blank range, he shot her, and she was a good person, she was a patriot, there was no reason. And he went on TV to brag about the fact that he killed her!

    Of course, she claims he wasn’t bragging….then skips to Pence – “..who says that you endangered his life on that day (aside by T: “I don’t think he was in any danger…”) – do you feel you owe him an apology?” “No, because he did something wrong – he should have put the votes back to the State legislatures, and I think we would have had a different outcome. I really do.” (Crowd claps -they are clapping on & off thru-out) She claims he didn’t have the authority and he stops her

    “OK, are you ready? Just…now, ’cause it’s interesting (turns to the crowd) Let’s keep it interesting, right? (crowd laughs) I like Mike Pence very much, he’s a very fine man, he’s a very nice man, he made a mistake. His lawyers said you cannot move – I call them the human conveyor belt – they said even if the votes – talked to his lawyer – even if the votes are absolutely fraudulent, he can’t send them back…yes, sir, he can’t send them back….and the democrats played it and the RINOs played it. And Mike said to me, I can’t do it, the lawyers tell me I can’t do it but the lawyers were wrong. Because right after the election, they all met, the RINOs and the Democrats and they worked out a plan to make sure that future VP’s don’t do what I said he could do.”

    I’m not going to get into the argument she tries to put forth…..he asks her why did they change the law…”they didn’t change the law, they strengthened it” – just pure BS and he keeps after her.

    Liked by 1 person

  29. Audience questions: “Would you pardon J6 prisoners?”

    A: “I am inclined to pardon many of them. I can’t say for every single one because a couple of them, probably they got out of control, but when you look at Antifa, what they’ve done to Portland, and look at Antifa and what they done to Minneapolis, so many other places – look at what they did to Seattle and BLM? Many people were killed – these people….I’m not trying to justify anything. But you have 2 standards of justice in this country and what they’ve done – and I love that question – what they’ve done to so many people is nothing….and then what they’ve done to these people? They’ve persecuted these people! And yeah, my answer is, I most likely, if I get in, I will say, it will be a large portion of them. And it will be very early on – they are living in hell right now – they’re living in hell – and they’re policeman and they’re fireman and they’re soldiers and they’re carpenters and electricians and they’re great people! Many of them are just great people”

    She asks about the 4 Proud Boys members that were charged and convicted of seditious conspiracy?

    “I don’t know, I’d have to look at they’re case but will say, in Washington, DC, you cannot get a fair trial! You cannot! Just like in NYC you can’t get a fair trial!” (My guess is about 2/3 of the crowd is clapping.)

    ROFL – she’s reading the “significant verdict” from the trial with the wackjob bitch in NYC and the crowd is laughing!!! “What do you say to voters who think this disqualifies you for President?”

    “There aren’t too many of them because my poll numbers just came out and they went up! OK?” Crowd is roaring, whistling and clapping and he is giving her his famous side-eye! Oh, this is good!

    “I’m the only person in history ever charged like that and….usually, you leave office and say ‘I’m sorry but I’m going back home, back home to my family and everything and I’m going to be resigning’….and my poll numbers went up, and they went up with the other fake charge, too, what’s happening is, they are doing this for election interference…” He talks about the things the judge wouldn’t allow in, like her calling her black husband an ape and naming her cat “vagina” – judge wouldn’t allow that but they allow anything on me, like the Access Hollywood tape…..

    Liked by 1 person

      1. ah, no.
        there’s still sand there or so it looks.
        we used to go to Atlantic City every so often to gamble (at the Trump casino…lol) but a lot of the time we strolled the boardwalk…sat on the benches and watched the water. As long as I don’t have to go in the sand or water, i can enjoy it–the sounds, the sights…
        LOL

        Liked by 1 person

  34. i really hope the blacks in CA give newscum the business. he had no intent to pay out reparations–and not that he should or anyone should– but they were lured in again by dems promising them the moon only to get mooned instead

    Liked by 1 person

  36. Liked by 1 person

  38. a gang is a gang…regardless of age. if I could round them up–they’d be scrubbing public toilets and picking up trash for a year…”teens” assault a French family on vacation in NYC
    FTA
    In an interview with the Daily News, Viguier recounted the incident.

    “We were walking back from the restaurant when a bunch of teenagers came from behind,” he explained. “One of the teens pushed me and I turned around to get him to stop and he punched me in the head and I went down.”

    When asked why he thought his family had been targeted, Viguier suggested that the teens “probably heard us speaking French and thought we were tourists,” thus making them easy prey.

    Poret added that when his wife, Viguier’s daughter, tried to intervene to protect her elderly father, she was punched, and chose instead to record the group. When the camera came out, the teens ran away.

    “I’ve seen the videos of what can happen in New York,” Poret said, explaining why he didn’t get involved. “In Paris, I would have taken them,” he added.

    Viguier, who was taken to hospital following the incident, told the Daily News that his wife “doesn’t feel safe” in the city. “I still love New York,” he said, pointing out that such incidents “can happen anywhere,” and that their vacation had gone smoothly up until that point. The family was scheduled to fly back to France on Wednesday.

    According to the New York Police Department, no arrests have been made in the case. Authorities are searching for five teens, two of whom laid hands upon members of the family.

    https://thepostmillennial.com/family-of-french-tourists-attacked-by-gang-of-teens-in-nyc

    Like

  39. phoenix posted a family update at wolf’s

    phoenixrising(@phoenixrising)Offline
    Wolverine
    May 11, 2023 11:28

    Update on family:

    Brother-in-law went home from hospital on Monday … Sissy reported last evening that he is better every day … she however is still very tired. Sue Ellen sends her thanks for all your prayers, asks that you continue for a bit to pray for Randy’s continued recovery.

    Local Sissy awaits the result of biopsy … she has beaten 3 types of cancer, if there is a quota she has surpassed it imho. Her daughter Marie passed late December ’22 so she has had a stressful year or two… prayers for her are much appreciated. My most sincere thanks to you all for your prayers and concern. God bless…

    Like

  45. OK, I’m back to watching – WTH!!??!! Yeah, our economy was rocking and rolling until COVID came in….we had to change things to save lives!” STOP WITH THE LIES ALREADY!!!

    Liked by 1 person

  46. I am seriously considering never voting again….I am coming to the conclusion that it makes no difference whatsoever – I am convinced now that we are NOT going to fix this! People just don’t care enough.

    Liked by 1 person

  50. if you allow a homeless person to erect and maintain a tent “home” they are confiscating PUBLIC property as their own. this is illegal. try going into a town and set up a shop in an unused lot–they’ll evict you and charge you with trespassing. why not the same for someone confiscating a sidewalk?
    or alley?
    entire article
    Americans must not surrender to the new normal of squalor and urban chaos — of tent encampments, public defecation, panhandling and shouting schizophrenics.

    In the aftermath of Jordan Neely’s tragic death on a New York subway, advocates for the homeless and most Democratic politicians are demanding unfettered freedom for the homeless to live on the streets, even with mental illness.

    Advocates are taking over subway stations and dominating the mainstream media with their demands. Too little is being said about the needs of the quiet majority.

    People who go to a job every day or operate a business or take their kids to school need safe sidewalks and public transportation.

    Yet Democrats in the Oregon state legislature are pushing a bill to guarantee the homeless the right to sue for $1,000 if they are harassed or removed from a public space.

    Democratic lawmakers in California recently defeated a ban on homeless encampments within 500 feet of a school, playground or youth center. So, it’s OK for kindergarteners to have to step over syringes and navigate buckets of urine on their way into school?

    Even after Michelle Go was pushed to sudden death off a Times Square subway platform by a mentally ill homeless person in 2022, the New York Civil Liberties Union continues to say, “we must not lock people with mental health issues away in hospitals” and “allow police officers to simply sweep homeless people out of the subways so they are kept out of sight.”

    New York Times opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie railed this week that “we are living through a vicious campaign of demonization and hostility toward the homeless” with “prominent voices” advocating “sweeping homeless people from the streets like trash.” Bouie is wrong. The opposite is true. The loudest voices are demanding “rights” for the homeless, but not for the rest of us.

    The National Coalition for the Homeless considers local laws against panhandling and sidewalk camping as violations of the constitutional rights of the unhoused.

    What about rights for Pedro Morales, an Austin, Texas, small-business owner? A homeless encampment has popped up in the alley next to the building he owns. “I have to clean up somebody else’s mess,” he explains.

    Same is true of Edy Perez, who owns an auto repair business in Los Angeles. The homeless have set up a sprawl of tents nearby. Once customers see that, they never come back, he complains.

    Urban homelessness emerged as a problem in the 1980s, in part because civil libertarians demanded that mental hospitals be closed. The number of patients living in state hospitals across the nation plunged from 535,000 in 1960 to 137,000 by 1980. The mentally ill wound up on the streets.

    The problem worsened when the Obama administration and homeless advocates won a lawsuit to prevent Boise, Idaho, from outlawing camping on sidewalks and public parks. Obama’s Justice Department deemed homelessness a legally protected lifestyle choice. Ridiculous.

    A person who “chooses” street living, instead of shelter or hospitalization, is exposed to hypothermia, disease and crime. On average, a homeless person survives only to age 48, losing 30 years of a normal lifespan. It’s worse for women.

    Allowing that choice is neither compassionate to the homeless nor fair to the rest of society.

    Kudos to a handful of Democratic politicians who are bucking their party to advocate for involuntarily hospitalizing the mentally ill homeless.

    In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams is employing teams of EMS workers and health professionals to get the mentally ill homeless off the streets and subways and into hospitals. Predictably, the mainstream press are slamming Adams’ policy for violating the “civil rights” of the homeless.

    In Portland, Oregon, Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler is pushing to loosen the state’s involuntary commitment law, making it easier to hospitalize the homeless against their will.

    Neely’s death is igniting a nationwide debate over homelessness — the only good to come out of the tragedy. If he had been hospitalized for mental illnesses, maybe he’d be alive today.

    Seize this moment to speak up and denounce the delusional argument that street living is a “right.” It dooms the homeless to short, brutal lives, and the rest of us to filth, crime and chaos.

    https://www.creators.com/read/betsy-mccaughey/05/23/making-homelessness-a-valid-lifestyle-choice-is-wrong

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.