The most valuable gemstones in the world are usually the most difficult to find. Their rarity makes them even more valuable and stones with striking colors such as red diamond or beryl of the same color are the most popular. Today in Planderful we will tell you which are the 10 rarest gemstones, that is, the most difficult to find in nature.
Precious stones
Gemstones are made up of a mineral substance that, in polished and cut form, is used to create jewelry or other decorative ornaments. The gemstone is usually designated by a letter that represents some type of unique characteristic of the stone, such as color, clarity, carat, cut, or transparency. However, some stones and sometimes even certain natural materials are used for fashion jewelry and are therefore classified as gemstones as well.
Gemstones can come in many shapes, including round, square, emerald, marquise, pear, sapphire, heart, billion, wheel, or oval. Some gemstones may be black with no visible yellowing, while others may appear very bright in color. One of the reasons that determine the value of a gemstone is its rarity or, in other words, the difficulty of finding it in nature.
Below, we tell you about the 10 rarest gemstones.
- Painite
In the 1950s, mineralogist Arthur C.D. Paine found an unusual brownish stone in Myanmar (Burma) that turned out to be one of the rarest gemstones on the planet: Painite. For many decades, just two pieces were known to exist, pushing the gem to be "priceless". In the last few years, some more crystals were found. The Painite is found in shades of orange to brownish red.
- Benitoite
Benitoite is a gemstone named after its place of discovery in San Benito, California. It is a gemstone found in 1907 in this American county and there are very few pieces of this mineral. It has a color between bluish, white, and pinkish and it is only found as a gem in California.
Source: https://www.ebay.com/itm/175214830113
- Musgravite
Musgravite is a purple-colored stone that, like Benitoite, owes its name to its origin: Musgrave Ranges in Australia. It was found rather recently, in 1967, and is still taken as a rare piece, and this makes it even more valuable. Nowadays, deposits of Musgravite stones have been found in Sri Lanka, Greenland, Tanzania, and Madagascar.
- Red Beryl
Red beryl has a high price because of its color. The common beryl does not have any hue, so this type of reddish beryl is more appreciated in jewelry. They are usually found in Utah, United States and it is very difficult to find red beryls larger than 2 or 3 carats. This gemstone is worth more than $10,000 per carat.
- Alexandrite
This expensive gemstone is a type of chrysoberyl that can have various shades depending on the type of light that hits it. If it is under natural light we can see a greenish-colored Alexandrite and if the light is natural it will present a more reddish tone.
This curious characteristic makes it very valuable in the world of gemology and deposits can be found in many parts of the world, including Brazil, Tanzania, Burma, Sri Lanka, the United States, and Russia.
Source: https://www.gemstones.com/gemopedia/alexandrite
- Diamonds
Of course, the jewels that could not be missing from this list of precious stones are diamonds. The favorite gemstone of queens, actresses, and singers is also one of the most expensive and its price can vary greatly in price depending on its quality.
In 2016, the largest diamond ever seen on Earth, weighing 1109 carats, was auctioned. The bidding was so exorbitant that it was eventually left without a buyer, stopping the auction at $61 million. The diamond is the hardest stone on the planet with a level 10 on the Mohs scale and is very durable.
- Serendibite
Serendibite is a very rare mineral discovered in Sri Lanka in 1902 and is ranked number 4 of the most expensive gemstones on the planet. Its name comes from the Arabic Serendib, the ancient name for the country Sri Lanka. A carat of Serendibite can reach $18,000 and recently pieces have also been found in Myanmar.
- Grandidierite
As you can see, the rarest stones are at the same time the most expensive because there are few common pieces in the world. This is something that also happens to the Grandidierite, discovered in the 20th century in Madagascar and with a color between bluish and greenish semi-transparent. Its price is around 20,000 dollars per carat.
- Taaffeite
Surely if you are not a great lover of jewelry you have not heard of the Taaffeite, one of the rarest gemstones in the world. In fact, it is so-called because it was discovered accidentally by Eduard Taaffe in 1945. Taaffeite is a pink to lilac-colored stone and is found in Sri Lanka and Tanzania. Its price can reach 35,000 dollars per carat.
- Red diamond
There are pink diamonds and also black diamonds, but the unique formation process and their unusual scarlet color make these others unique gemstones. The red diamonds are the most expensive gemstones in the world. Their price even exceeds one million dollars per carat. The reason for these big prices is that there are only 30 red diamonds in the world, and most of these weigh less than half a carat. In 2011, the well-known Moussaieff red diamond was sold for $8 million and is the largest red diamond in the world.
Source: https://www.graff.com/international-en/house/news/rarified-world.html
Conclusions
The most expensive gemstones in the world are stones that are valued because of their color, clarity, cut, and pattern. Each gemstone has its own unique characteristics and properties, so they cannot be generalized into one group or type. However, there are some general attributes that most gemstones share. They are hard, dense, durable, transparent, and shiny. Gemstones are considered gemstones when they meet these criteria and if they are set in fine jewelry.
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