Whats the most expensive gemstone in the world?
Next to certain rare colors of diamond (such as blue, pink and red), jadeite is the world‘s most expensive gem, with prices above even ruby and sapphire. The record price for a single piece of jadeite jewelry was set at the November 1997 Christie’s Hong Kong sale: Lot 1843, the “Doubly Fortunate” necklace of 27 approximately 15 mm jadeite beads, sold for US$9.3 million . Indeed, out of the top ten most expensive jewels sold worldwide by Christie’s in 1999, five out of ten were jadeite, including three of the top four. These auctions clearly show that jadeite is among the most valuable of all gemstones. The most valuable jadeites are those of high translucency and rich Cr-green color. Nephrite has little value as a gem in and of itself, but carvings can be quite valuable.
Natural Fancy Vivid Red Diamonds are far and away the most expensive gemstones on earth. Nothing comes even remotely close to them in price. A perfect, IF Natural fancy vivid red diamond (has never been graded by any lab i’m aware of), would, in my humble opinion exceed 5 million USD. per carat. The famed Red Shield would be worth 30,000,000.00 or more. That stone is just over 5 carats. There is no 5 carat stone on this planet that could compare in monetary value to that. Second to natural fancy vivid red diamonds are natural fancy vivid greens, these too are exceedingly rare in pure green states. The 45+ carat Dresden Green is, in my humble opinion the single most valuable stone on this planet. It is truely priceless.
The most expensive gemstone is the red beryl (aka red emerald). These are the rarest of gemstones. Because of their rarity, the prices of these stones can be over $5,000 per carat (http://tinyurl.com/hojfv). This is opposed to emerald which is (as of this writing) is going for less than $1,000 per carat (http://tinyurl.com/fhl9c). Red beryl has a very intense raspberry to ruby red color that is derive from manganese in its structure. Gem quality stones are only found in one place in the entire world, South Western Utah. (I have actually been to the mine.) It’s not a very big mine and there are not many people that that work it. The original owner of the mine (the Harris Group) was a small family operation that made millions working the mine just a few days each year. For more information on this gemstone Google “red beryl” or “red emerald”.
