Rating of gems by price — TOP 10 gems by value

From time immemo­r­i­al, peo­ple have been cre­at­ing jew­el­ry for the body. The old­est piece of jew­el­ry ever found, the shell neck­lace, is 100,000 years old!

The rea­sons for wear­ing jew­el­ry were orig­i­nal­ly some­what dif­fer­ent from mod­ern ones. Basi­cal­ly it was a sign of pow­er, wealth or class. Glass beads act­ed as pro­tec­tive tal­is­mans. They have always been a sym­bol of strength and resilience, the sub­ject of dreams and leg­ends.

Only in the 19th cen­tu­ry did jew­el­ry become a pure­ly aes­thet­ic acces­so­ry of a com­mem­o­ra­tive or sen­ti­men­tal nature. Today they are avail­able to every­one. The only dif­fer­ence is the qual­i­ty of the mate­ri­als used to make the jew­el­ry. Among them, a spe­cial place is occu­pied by nat­ur­al min­er­als, which are includ­ed in the world rat­ing of pre­cious stones.

In this arti­cle, we will talk about the cri­te­ria for clas­si­fy­ing stones, the scale of hard­ness and the most expen­sive jew­el­ry.

What are the most popular gemstones in the world?

Stones used in jew­el­ry are con­ven­tion­al­ly divid­ed into:

• 
  

  Natural (organic)

These are min­er­als with a cer­tain chem­i­cal com­po­si­tion and char­ac­ter­is­tic struc­ture. They are beau­ti­ful, durable and rarely found in nature.
To appre­ci­ate the beau­ty of a min­er­al, light is nec­es­sary, because it is its cor­re­spond­ing reflec­tion and refrac­tion that deter­mine, for exam­ple, the col­or of emer­alds, the “fire” of dia­monds, or the play of opals.
Strength gem­stones are mea­sured accord­ing to the hard­ness scale devel­oped by the Ger­man min­er­al­o­gist Fred­er­ick Moos. Stones used in jew­el­ry must be hard enough to be forged and set. The sci­en­tist chose 10 min­er­als and arranged them in such a way that each of them could be scratched by a hard­er stone.

This scale looks like this:

1 — talc,

2 — gyp­sum,

3 — cal­cite,

4 — flu­o­rite,

5 — apatite,

6 — ortho­clase,

7 — quartz,

8 — topaz,

9 — corun­dum,

10 — dia­mond.

How­ev­er, this scale does not give infor­ma­tion about the exact hard­ness (oth­er tests are used for this), but only about which gem­stone is hard­er than anoth­er. Hard­ness is deter­mined only on fresh min­er­al sur­faces. Do not check pol­ished stones, as they can be scratched and dam­aged.

The hard­ness of gem­stones is above 7. These include: dia­mond, emer­ald, ruby, sap­phire, topaz, alexan­drite, aqua­ma­rine, heliodor, mor­gan­ite, tour­ma­line, beryl, spinel, opal. In addi­tion to min­er­als, gem­stones on the Mohs hard­ness scale include organ­ic sub­stances such as nat­ur­al pearls, coral and amber.

Dia­mond, ruby, sap­phire and emer­ald - the rarest, most beau­ti­ful, durable and most expen­sive gem­stones. Accord­ing to Forbs, their total val­ue is 97% of the price of all gem­stones in the world sale.

Oth­er stones, less attrac­tive in appear­ance, often opaque and less hard, usu­al­ly belong to the group of semi-pre­cious and dec­o­ra­tive. Basi­cal­ly, inex­pen­sive jew­el­ry, sou­venirs are made from them, and even coun­ter­tops, win­dow sills, wash­basins, and wall cov­er­ings are made from them. These include:

• flows
• young
• mala­chite,
• lapis lazuli,
• labradorite,
• onyx,
• Moon­stone,
• rhodonite,
• sodalite,
• pome­gran­ate,
• ama­zonite,
• jade,
• turquoise.

Due to their low­er hard­ness, semi-pre­cious and dec­o­ra­tive stones are often giv­en a less refined shape than pre­cious ones. Most often they are cut into a cabo­chon or made into balls.

The rar­i­ty of stones affects their val­ue. It hap­pens that a min­er­al, quite often found in nature, has few sam­ples suit­able for pro­cess­ing, for exam­ple, quartz. Dia­monds are also rare, but most of them can be worked with.

• 
  

  Modified to increase value and quality

Among the var­i­ous stone mod­i­fi­ca­tion meth­ods, the most com­mon are:

• impreg­na­tion — stain­ing with var­i­ous chem­i­cals;
• oil sat­u­ra­tion — dis­guise of cracks and small spots;
• the heat­ing — improve­ment or change in col­or or trans­paren­cy;
• expo­sure — dis­col­oration of stones with the help of radioac­tive ele­ments or x‑rays.

The advan­tage of such stones is a good val­ue for mon­ey.

These are mate­ri­als that imi­tate pre­cious stones, such as oth­er nat­ur­al stones or glass. The most famous imi­ta­tion is cubic zir­co­nia, which imi­tates dia­mond. It first appeared on the mar­ket in 1973, and after 3 years, as a result of the improve­ment of the pro­duc­tion method, it cap­tured the jew­el­ry mar­ket. In the late 90s, anoth­er, more per­fect imi­ta­tion of dia­mond, moissan­ite, appeared on the mar­ket.

• 
  

  Synthetic stones

These are arti­fi­cial­ly obtained min­er­als that have the same chem­i­cal com­po­si­tion and inter­nal struc­ture as nat­ur­al stones — black and white opals, turquoise, lapis lazuli. In 1902, they began to be pro­duced in lab­o­ra­to­ries. Over the years, the meth­ods of their man­u­fac­ture have improved. They cause a lot of prob­lems for gemol­o­gists involved in the recog­ni­tion of pre­cious stones.

Syn­thet­ic stones include stones made in lab­o­ra­to­ries and not hav­ing a nat­ur­al pat­tern — zir­cons, gar­netites, as well as aven­turine glass, which was cre­at­ed in the 17th cen­tu­ry in Venice. These stones are used in jew­el­ry because of the many shim­mer­ing par­ti­cles that sparkle beau­ti­ful­ly in the light.

What determines gemstones by value?

When eval­u­at­ing gem­stones, the fol­low­ing para­me­ters are tak­en into account:

• size,
• the weight,
• col­or,
• shine,
• clean­li­ness,
• crys­tal form.

The table of the cost of pre­cious stones of dia­monds is most accu­rate­ly described. The so-called Rule 4C:

1. dri­ve A unit of weight for a gem. 1 carat = 200 mg;
2. col­or — from col­or­less to yel­low;
3. clean­li­ness — the pres­ence of inclu­sions and stains;
4. branch­es — reflec­tion with the help of facets of light rays.

The authen­tic­i­ty of dia­monds is cer­ti­fied by the most respect­ed gemo­log­i­cal lab­o­ra­to­ries and insti­tutes in the world: IGI (Inter­na­tion­al Gemo­log­i­cal Insti­tute) and GIA (Gemo­log­i­cal Insti­tute of Amer­i­ca).

Since dia­monds can­not be com­pared with oth­er stones, a spe­cial gem rat­ing, or AAA clas­si­fi­ca­tion, has been cre­at­ed for the rest of the min­er­als. This clas­si­fi­ca­tion com­pares, for exam­ple, pearls with oth­er pearls and eval­u­ates their col­or, bril­liance, clar­i­ty, and cut.

So gems are rat­ed: AAA, AA, A, A/B/C/D.

Rare gems: ranking by value in the world

• Translu­cent Impe­r­i­al Bot­tle Green Jade. Its val­ue is esti­mat­ed at $3 mil­lion per carat. It is mined in Bur­ma. The name “jade” comes from the Span­ish “piedra de hija­da” and means “lum­bar stone”. It was believed that he was able to save his mas­ter from back pain.
• red dia­mond — the sec­ond most valu­able gem in the world, where there are only 30 pieces of such min­er­als. This is a spe­cial type of dia­mond, which is extreme­ly rare. It is mined at the Argyle mine in Aus­tralia. 1 carat of this stone costs 2–2.5 mil­lion dol­lars.
• blue pome­gran­ate has an inter­est­ing prop­er­ty — a change in col­or to pur­ple under the influ­ence of arti­fi­cial light. It was dis­cov­ered rel­a­tive­ly late, only in 1990 in Mada­gas­car. Mined in the USA, Rus­sia and Turkey. One carat of this min­er­al was val­ued at $1.5 mil­lion at auc­tion.
• Serendip­i­ty dis­cov­ered in Sri Lan­ka in 1902. Its name comes from the local name of the island. Stones quar­ried in Sri Lan­ka are green­ish-blue in col­or, while stones from Bur­ma are shades of black. Their price varies from 0.5 to 1 mil­lion dol­lars.
• Paynit was opened in 1956 and named after its dis­cov­er­er. Most often, this stone is mined in Bur­ma. This min­er­al can have shades of orange, brown, red and pur­ple. 1 carat is val­ued at $50–60,000. Until recent­ly, pai­nite was con­sid­ered the most valu­able stone in the world. You could even read about it in the Guin­ness Book of Records. After 2005, its new deposits began to open, and it ceased to be con­sid­ered the most valu­able.

TOP 10 luxury jewelry made from the most expensive gemstones

Many of the most expen­sive and pres­ti­gious jew­els in the world have amaz­ing sto­ries that have been set in events for cen­turies involv­ing the nobil­i­ty and roy­al­ty. These are jew­el­ry that have become sym­bols of wealth, pow­er and pros­per­i­ty. They are made from pre­cious stones with unique prop­er­ties. Thanks to cut­ting and pro­cess­ing, they are con­sid­ered unique works of art.

10. Awe­some watch Chopard cost 25 mil­lion dol­lars. They are con­sid­ered one of the most expen­sive watch­es in the world. The item is adorned with 874 dia­monds and weighs 201 carats. They fea­ture 3 large heart-shaped dia­monds in shades of pink, blue and white. Wear­ing this watch requires strength because it weighs like a heavy book.

9. Hut­ton-Mdi­vani jade neck­lace, issued by Carti­er in 1933. It is worth $27.4 mil­lion. This piece of jew­el­ry con­sists of emer­ald green jade and an 18 carat gold clasp, rubies and dia­monds. The neck­lace was sold at auc­tion in 2014 for $27.4 mil­lion. It was orig­i­nal­ly owned by Amer­i­can socialite Bar­bara Hut­ton, heiress to the Wool­worth for­tune.

She was the daugh­ter of Edna and Franklin Lowes Hut­ton (grand­daugh­ter of Frank W. Wool­worth). When Bar­bara mar­ried in 1933, her father gave her a unique jade acces­so­ry from Carti­er, lat­er called the Hut­ton-Mdi­vani Jadeite.

8. Sweet Josephine is a $28 mil­lion gem­stone made from the very rare Fan­cy Vivid pink dia­mond. The gem is named after Josephine, the 7‑year-old daugh­ter of a Hong Kong mil­lion­aire who bought the gem in 2015.

7. De Griso­gono — one of the most expen­sive neck­laces with dia­monds and emer­alds, cre­at­ed by Fawaz Gru­osi, the founder of the jew­el­ry brand De Griso­gono. It costs $33 mil­lion. The cen­tral dia­mond of this stone weighs 163.41 carats.

6. Graff Pink Dia­mond (Graff Pink) — a bright pink dia­mond weigh­ing 24.78 carats, which was acquired in 2010 by jew­el­er Lawrence Graff for 38 mil­lion euros. He mod­i­fied the cut dia­mond by plac­ing it on a ring with two oth­er dia­monds on the sides, giv­ing it his name.

5. Mouawad dia­mond neck­lace — one of the most expen­sive neck­laces in the world. Its val­ue is $55 mil­lion. It con­tains the largest flaw­less dia­mond (weigh­ing 407.48 carats) dis­cov­ered in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of the Con­go in the 1980s. This piece is based on a rose gold chain set with 90 small­er dia­monds. In 1980, a young man from the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of the Con­go found an incom­pa­ra­ble gem in the ruins. He weighed 890 carats. In 1984. It was then dis­played at the Smith­so­ni­an’s Nation­al Muse­um of Nat­ur­al His­to­ry and has since appeared in many dif­fer­ent his­tor­i­cal cen­ters.

4. Oppen­heimer Blue Dia­mond — a blue dia­mond embed­ded in the ring. It was sold at Christie’s in 2016 for a stag­ger­ing $57.5 mil­lion. The stone was named after its for­mer own­er, Sir Philip Oppen­heimer, a race­horse own­er whose fam­i­ly con­trolled the De Beers group. And it was the lat­est in a long line of famous blue gems brought to Christie’s auc­tion.

3. Pink Star Dia­mond (Pink Star) — the most expen­sive gem sold at Sothe­by’s in Gene­va in April 2017 for $71.2 mil­lion. It was acquired by Hong Kong-based hold­ing com­pa­ny Chow Tai Fook Enter­pris­es just five min­utes into trad­ing. This dia­mond was dis­cov­ered by De Beers in 1999 at a mine in Botswana. It was orig­i­nal­ly a huge rough stone weigh­ing 132.5 carats. It took 2 years to process, grind, pol­ish and get the cur­rent oval-cut dia­mond.

3. Brooch Dia­mond Graff in the form of a pea­cock costs $ 100 mil­lion. It was pre­sent­ed in 2013 at the Tefaf exhi­bi­tion in the Nether­lands. The cen­ter stone of the Graff Dia­mond, a 120.81 carat pear-shaped Fan­cy navy blue dia­mond, has a diam­e­ter of 10 cm. It is com­posed of 1305 gems, includ­ing: yel­low, pink, orange and green dia­monds.
4. Hope Dia­mond worth 200–250 mil­lion dol­lars. It is one of the most famous gems in the world, but also one of the most expen­sive. Weighs 45.42 carats (9.1 grams), has a dark gray-blue “Fan­cy” col­or. Since open­ing in Gol­con­da, India, in 1666, it has had many own­ers. It was first bought by Queen Lua XIV, who renamed it “French Blue”. The dia­mond remained the prop­er­ty of the French roy­al fam­i­ly until 1792, the year of the Rev­o­lu­tion, when it was stolen dur­ing a rob­bery. The stone reap­peared in 1839 in the cat­a­log of Hen­ry Philip Hope. With a rep­u­ta­tion for being a cursed dia­mond that pass­es through the hands of fam­i­lies and brings bad luck, it was pur­chased by jew­el­er Har­ry Win­ston, who donat­ed it to the Smith­son­ian in 1949.

Do you want to wear chic jew­el­ry, like roy­al­ty, famous per­son­al­i­ties and show busi­ness stars? Take a look at the Sil­vers online store cat­a­log. There are many brand­ed jew­el­ry at afford­able prices. Place an order with deliv­ery in Ukraine — and soon you will be able to enjoy the splen­dor of these acces­sories, bright radi­ance and play of stones.