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The 10 Most Expensive Gemstones in the World (Update on April 2023)
Do you know, which are the Most Expensive Gemstones in the World?
Hello readers! You have clicked on this blog which means you are curious to know about the most expensive gemstones in the world! I have gathered some interesting facts and details about the top 10 most expensive gemstones to be found until now.
Gemstones are very beautiful and expensive stones that are formed in the earth’s womb over a significant period. Some gemstones are formed deep under the earth and come to the surface by a volcanic eruption or explosion.
While many other gemstones are crystallized from various gases and heating of the fluids in the zenith of the earth. These gases and fluids take over millions and billions of years to convert themselves into the sparkling stones that we call Gemstones.
List of the Most Expensive Gemstones in the World
The formation of a gemstone takes a great span of geological time. They are not made within a couple of decades or centuries. The discovery of these exceptional gemstones is accomplished after years and years of exploration and research. Some gemstones come to the surface of the earth through weathering-eruption, whereas some gemstones are obtained through mining.
Considering the time that a gemstone takes to form and to be found is one of the main factors in estimating its price. Of course, the rarity of it also affects the cost of the gemstone. The rarer the gemstone is the costlier it becomes.
And then comes the 4 C’s of gemstones that determines the price of these beautiful stones, i.e. ‘Color’, ‘Clarity’, ‘Cut’, and ‘Carat’. These four C’s are highly preferred in valuing gemstones. Pure gemstones are limited and hence expensive. Here are the names of the top most expensive gemstones in the world which are also rare!
10. Serendibite ($18,000/carat)
Serendibite got its name after ‘Serendib’, the Arabic name for Sri Lanka. The name was given by Dunil Palitha Gunasekera in 1902, the year this rare silicate mineral was discovered. This gem is a rare borosilicate mineral that is hardly found in crystalline form. The color of this unique gem goes from bluish-green to black, grayish blue, or pale yellow.
It is known to have a mixture of complex elements compounding boron metasomatism of carbon along with graphite and other 16 sub-elements. Serendibite’s extreme rarity shows as it has been mined only thrice, with each specimen under a carat. It is very difficult to get your hands on one because this gemstone is one of the most expensive gemstones in the world. It costs around $18,000 per carat!
9. Grandidierite ($20,000/carat)
This rare gemstone holds the ninth position in this list of the most expensive gemstone in the world. This gemstone is very hard and almost impossible to find. It was discovered in Madagascar by Alfred Lacroix in 1902. The gemstone was named after the French naturalist Alfred Grandidier.
Apart from Madagascar, samples of Grandidierite have been found in Namibia, Sri Lanka, and Malawi, but the quality gems have come from Madagascar. Gradidierite is bluish-green due to the amount of iron present in it.
It is believed that the more traces of iron in the gemstone, the darker will be the color of the gemstone. According to GIA (Gemological Institute of America), Gradidierites are extremely rare and have very high transparency. Most of these gems are over 2 carats. The largest size of this exceptional and expensive gemstone is 4.54 carats, which as per GIA is scarcely found.
8. Musgravite ($35,000/carat)
Musgravite is found in the color grey-green to green. It is a rare oxide mineral, found in the Ernabella Mission of the Musgrave Ranges in South Australia. It was discovered in 1967 and is known to be a member of the ‘Taaffeite Family’ of minerals. The rarity of this gemstone exceeds its parent stone. Since its discovery til the year 2006, only twenty faceted musgravites were identified. There have been only 8 gem quality musgravites mined since 2005.
This justifies the rarity of the gem making it one of the most expensive gemstones in the world. This gemstone has a trigonal formation and ultra-fine luminance. The clarity and uniqueness of this stone make it one of the rarest and most expensive gemstones in the world.
7. Taaffeite ($35,000/carat)
It is known to be the only mineral that was discovered as a cut gemstone and not a faceted crystal. The discovery of this rare and expensive gemstone was done by Richard Taaffe, an Austrian gemologist in 1945. Richard found the gem when he was sorting through the parcel of gems he purchased.
He discovered that one of the gems was doubly refractive more than diamond and garnet. He sent that gem to the laboratory for testing and found out that it was a rare gem and named it Taaffeite. This gemstone’s colors found are red, green, blue, violet, and colorless.
Some of the selected breeds of this gemstone come in lavender and pale mauve color. One of the extremely rare colors of Taaffeite is purple and saturated red. The largest gemstone which was 33 carats was sold at an auction in Hong Kong in 1999.
6. Painite ($60,000/carat)
Painite gems are found in brownish, red, or orange-red colors. This gemstone is an extremely rare borate mineral. It can be confused with Ruby but it’s not! It was discovered in 1957 in Myanmar. Only a single crystal was found and was identified as a new gem breed.
Another two gems were found until the year 2001. This scarce and expensive gemstone has an intriguing red color, utter brilliance, and tough enough to challenge the gem cutters. The price per carat for Painite can go from $50,000 to $60,000 per carat or even more. The rarity of its source which was only found in Myanmar makes this gemstone uncommon and expensive gemstone in the world.
5. Emerald ($100,000/carat)
Emeralds normally come in prices from low to high, but here we are talking about the most expensive gemstone in the world. So we will get to know the rarest and costliest emerald in the world. Usually, diamonds are known to be costlier than emeralds.
But the finest quality and perfect color emeralds are rare to find. The natural luminosity and opacity of the color are what make an emerald a rare and expensive gemstone. The emeralds of exceptional color and clarity can cost up to $100,000 per carat or even more. These rare and expensive gemstones are sourced from Brazil, Colombia, and Zambia.
4. Red Diamond ($1 Million/carat)
The red diamond is known to be one of the rarest and most expensive gemstones in the world. This gemstone is a diamond with all the properties of a colorless diamond but has a natural dark red color. The reason for its red color is the extreme heat and pressure that changed the position of the carbon atom inside the gemstone.
This phenomenon can lead the gemstone to reflect pink and red light. However, this is an assumption made by scientists. The rarity of the gemstone and this unique phenomenon led to the limited study of the gemstone. Currently, there are only 30 Red Diamonds in the world. In 2011, a red diamond was sold for around $8 million! After that, there has not been any auction or major discovery.
Top 3 Expensive Gemstones Are Below
3. Ruby ($1.18 Million/carat)
Sapphires, Emeralds, and Diamonds can be beaten up by a fine-quality of ruby. A premium quality ruby is high in cost than emeralds and diamonds. From the ancient times of Kings and Queens, this gemstone is most fondly addressed. This stone was appreciated so much not only because of its beautiful color and luster but because of the astrological superstition or belief in it.
This expensive gemstone was considered to be of high significance and extreme luck. Rubies are incredibly expensive because of their evenly distributed color, rich saturation, and high clarity. You can commonly find gemstones that claim to be ruby but the original rubies are rare in the market.
The real rubies have a hardness of 9 on the Mohs scale. However, they are slightly softer than diamonds but that does not affect the fact that they are highly demanded and scarcely available. In 2015, a ruby ring was sold in a Sotheby’s auction for over $30 million, making it one of the most expensive gemstones in the world.
2. Pink Diamond ($1.19 Million/carat)
The Pink diamond has its color due to the plastic deformation undergone by these diamonds while their formation. They are so special and expensive gemstones because of their structure. Pink diamonds are extremely rare to find. It is like white diamonds are formed solely from carbon over millions of years in the kimberlite pipes of volcanoes.
But it is exposed to so much pressure and heat over time that its crystals turn into grains. These grains are so compact that they only allow pink light to enter and illuminate the diamond.
We can say that there are only 0.00001% of the diamonds on this planet are pink. So you can fathom the rarity of the unique gemstone. It is found in Western Australia. The exceptionally elite class people like Iranian Empress and Queen Elizabeth are the proud possessors of this rare gemstone. At Sotheby’s auction in 2017, a pink star diamond was sold at a whopping price of $71.2 million which weighs around 59.6 carats.
1. Blue Diamond ($3.93 Million/carat)
Finally, we have come to the most expensive gemstone in the world. The blue diamond had all the properties of a colorless diamond but what makes it extremely rare and expensive? It’s the amount of boron contamination to its crystalline lattice structure that makes its color blue.
The color blue is the result of the ratio of boron and carbon present in it. The color blue deepens with the increase of boron in it. This natural blue diamond is very rare in existence and owned by some established royals. The intensity, weight, clarity, and cut are some of the factors for making any gemstone expensive.
But the naturally occurring blue-colored diamond is very scarce and unique. Hence this is the most expensive gemstone in the world. The most expensive Blue Diamond sold for a price of $57.5 million for 14.32 carats gemstone is ‘The Oppenheimer Blue’.
Conclusion of the Expensive Gemstones
You have come to the end of this blog and gathered some interesting knowledge about the most expensive gemstones in the world. Now you know about all the expensive gemstones holding the top 10 positions in the world.
All these gemstones are scarcely available in nature hence their rarity of them makes them unique and expensive. However, these gemstones can be mimicked and faked but the original qualities are hard to copy.
The natural roughness and few imperfections in these gemstones make them exclusive and beautiful. Only very keen gemologists and certified laboratories can authenticate the real gemstones. The original gems are given the certification of authenticity. So, if you want to get yourself a precious gemstone you must check its authenticity first and then invest your fortune.
Summary
Here is the list of the Most Expensive Gemstones in the World.
- Blue Diamond – $3.93 Million/carat
- Pink Diamond – $1.19 Million/carat
- Ruby – $1.18 Million/carat
- Red Diamond – $1 Million/carat
- Emerald – $100,000/carat
- Painite – $60,000/carat
- Taaffeite – $35,000/carat
- Musgravite – $35,000/carat
- Grandidierite – $20,000/carat
- Serendibite – $18,000/carat
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