Top Ten Gems
Taaffeite – $2,500 per carat For thousands of years, man has been besotted by the beauty and sparkle of gemstones. These stones are meant to be special, and they are even described as fragments of stars and tears of the gods.
Home » Learning Center » List of Gemstones by Name » Demantoid Garnet Value, Price, and Jewelry Information Demantoid Garnet Value, Price, and Jewelry Information “Demantoid Garnet,” modified square/cushion cut, 6.0 x 6.0 x 5.0 mm, 1.88 cts, Antetezambato, Ambanja District, Antsiranana Province, Madagascar. © Rob Lavinsky, www.iRocks.com.
8. Black Opal – $3,500 per carat. Opal gemstones have a different evaluation process than other gemstones with each one of them having their own distinct individuality. Compared to other opals, black (with body tones from N1 to N4) are considered rarest and most popular.
Benitoite – $3,800 per carat Considered as one of the most beautiful gems, Benitoite has a striking blue body color that has a dispersion higher than a diamond. As its name, it was discovered by the headwaters in San Benito River in San Benito County, California where it’s now declared as its state gem.
NOTE: all prices are per carat, so you need to multiply the price per carat to the carat weight of the gem (ie: a Padparadscha Sapphire that is 1.50 carats, "O" hue, "Exceptional" tone and saturation, and "VVS" clarity, is priced at $6,000 to $12,500 per carat, so the total Retail price would be 1.5 x $6,000 = $9,000 on the low side, and 1.5 x $12,500 = $18,750 on the high side of the Retail price).
The annual yield of red beryl from the mine is only about 5,000 to 7,000 carats a year. GMI is marketing the product as "red emerald," and touts it as one of the rarest gemstones in the world. Prices run as high as $10,000 per carat for top specimens.
Benitoite is a rare gemstone, and for all practical purposes only comes from a single limited deposit in California. It is a relatively new gemstone, and was first discovered in 1907. Benitoite gemstones have a sapphire-blue color, and can have very good transparency and luster.
5.12-ct grandidierite, medium dark bluish green, oval cabochon, 10.7 x 9.3 mm, Madagascar. © The Gem Trader. Used with permission. A rather rare mineral, lovely blue-green grandidierite is seldom seen in gem or jewelry collections.
Common opal was already the official gemstone representing all of Australia, because, amazingly, almost all of the world's supply of black opal is mined from New South Wales and an astonishing 97% of all common opal is sourced from Australia.
Red beryl is an extremely rare variety of beryl that receives its red color from trace amounts of manganese. In the entire world, crystals suitable for cutting gems have been found in only one location, the Ruby-Violet claims in the Wah Wah Mountains of Beaver County, Utah.
Jadeite can be more than one color in a single gem. Jadeite in which the color is evenly distributed is highly valued. However, color preferences vary depending on the region.
Taaffeite Gemstones. Taaffeite (pronounced TAR-fite) is one of the rarer gemstones known, and you'll often it see on lists of the most exotic stones in the world, along with esoteric minerals such as painite, musgravite and grandidierite.
Alexandrite is a stone that is associated with discipline and self-control. Many believe that alexandrite and chrysoberyl stones can promote concentration and strengthen the ability to learn. It also helps in evoking the wearer of the stone to strive for excellence.
Painite is a very rare borate mineral. It was first found in Myanmar by British mineralogist and gem dealer Arthur C.D. Pain in the 1950s. When it was confirmed as a new mineral species, the mineral was named after him.