Aquamarine Rings, Understanding The March Birthstone
Aquamarine is the March birth stone, it is also one of the preferred options for a medium pale blue top pale blue gem stone. Unline many gemstone rings that have a predominant demand in the ladies or gents ring category, aquamarine gems are well accepted by both ladies and men. While most of the aquamarine gems are pale blue in color, even the medium blue gems are never too bright or flashy. This surely is one of the reasons why the market for mens aquamarine rings has always remained active. The gem stone gets it's name from the reference to the color of water. The terms 'aqua' and 'marine' both refer to water and this gemstone does bring up visions of cool calm waters. One of the impressive features of this gem stone is it's clarity. Observe the gem stone in an aquamarine ring and you will agree that clarity combined with the pale blue color of the gem stone, allow the facets and cutting style to be clearly visible and appreciated. This is one of the reasons why aquamarine gems are often cut in fancy shapes and sizes.
If you need to know the technical details of aquamarine, this paragraph provides details in a nut shell. This gem stone is a variety of beryl, gems like emerald and bixbite belong to the beryl group too. When you think of emerald you can visualize the naturally occuring fissures and inclusions in the gem stone. Though a variety of beryl (like the emerald) aquamarine does not have these natural inclusions. This makes the gem more sturdy and durable as compared to emerald. If you talked about gem stone hardness, the aquamarine in your gemstone ring will have an impressive reading of 7.5 on the Mohs scale. The gemstone is not affected by household soaps and can be cleaned in an ultrasonic cleaner. You can wear your aquamarine gem stone ring as an everyday jewel and the basic care that is required for all jewelry is sufficient. Most aquamarine buyers prefer gems that are blue with no hint of green visible to the naked eye. The interesting thing is that most of the aquamarine when mined is infact a greenish color. Treating the gem stone under controlled conditions with heat, takes off the green tint and leaves the blue gem color that we are all used to seeing in aquamarine gem stone rings.
When it comes to the pricing for aquamarine gems, the estimates are quite established. We do not refer to large quantity purchases as most gem and jewelry buyers are not in that category. Depending on the quality that includes color and clarity, an aquamarine within 1.5 carats could be priced at around 40 U.S$ to 70 U.S$. When you move into the 1.5 to 2.5 carats category, expect to pay around 50 U.S$ to 90 U.S$ per carat. For larger sizes, the low availability allows gem dealers to quote their own price. Typically a 4 to 6 carat aquamarine gem stone could cost you around 250 U.S$ to 500 U.S$ per piece. These are more or less standard price offerings and we will not tell you fairy tales about the aquamarine mines drying up forever! There are substantial deposit of aquamarine stones, the prices have remained steady for at least 3 to 5 years. There is no immediate reason for any steep rise in the price of this gem stone. While Brazil was a big player in the aquamarine sector for long, much of the aquamarine in todays market comes from the Chinese mines.
Before we wind up this brief article on aquamarine gemstones, we need to clarify one popular and frequent confusion. There is a color shade of blue topaz that can closely resemble the color of good aquamarine. You need to beware of sky blue topaz gemstone rings being sold as aquamarine rings. Some clever gem dealers have even given a nickname to sky blue topaz namely, aqua blue topaz! This is done to make buyers believe that this topaz is related to aquamarine. They hope to get a higher price for the blue topaz gems that they sell by causing confusion among innocent buyers. The important thing that you should understand is that, aquamarine and topaz are different gems. Topaz is a great gemstone in it's own right but it is has nothing to do with aquamarine, sky blue topaz gems are priced substantially lower than aquamarine. Presuming that your jeweler is honest with you, getting a sky blue topaz gem stone ring and paying the right price for it is perfectly fine. The sad story is if you pay a higher price thinking that the blue topaz was similar to aquamarine. To ensure that this does not happen to you, select a reputed jeweler there really is no other way out.
All Kaisilver jewelry can be custom made in gold or silver with your choice of gem stones. You are welcome to send us your queries or design requirements at sales@kaisilver.com Our team of experts will work with you to finalize specifications and provide you with a specific price quote. Some of our custom aquamarine gem stone rings can be seen at http://www.kaisilver.com/mens-aquamarine-ring-man64-ks.htm