An oriental Diamond formerly belonging to Nadir Shah, Sultan of Persia, deserves the next place: it is without flaws or faults of any kind, and weighs 193 carats. Its form is that of a flattened ovoid, and it is about the size of a pigeon’s egg.

The next in size is a rough Brasilian Diamond, found in the river Abatio in, possession of the Prince Regent of Portugal weighing near an ounce troy.

The Pitt or Regent Diamond, is said to, have been found in Malacca, It was purchased by Mr. Pitt, an English gentleman, then Governor of Bencoolen in Sumatra, and was sold by him to the Regent Duke of Orleans by whom it was placed among the crown jewels of France, and of which it still forms the great glory. It is cut in the form of a brilliant, and is absolutely faultless. It weighs 136 carats, and its value as estimated by a commission of jewellers in the year 1791, is twelve millions of livres.

Perhaps one of the largest and most beautiful coloured Diamonds is a rich sky-blue brilliant, belonging to the crown jewels of France: it weighs 67 carats, and is estimated at three millions of livres.

In this list I have not enumerated the supposed great Diamond of Portugal, because it is now the general opinion, both of mineralogists and jewellers, that this stone is a white topaz. It was found in Brazil, in the Diamond mines, is as yet in its rough state, and weighs 1680 carats, above eleven ounces.

The removal of flaws is a matter of great importance, for, owing to the form in which the Diamond is cut, and its high degree of refrangibility, the smallest fault is magnified and becomes obtrusively visible in every facet. For this reason also, it is by no means an easy matter, at all times, to ascertain whether a flaw is, or is not superficial; and a person with a correct and well-practised eye, may often purchase to great advantage stones which appear to be flawed quite through, but are in fact only superficially blemished.

The first thing that the artist has to do when a rough Diamond is put into his hands, is to examine carefully, in what direction the stone may be cut, so as to afford the greatest breadth, or spread as it is technically termed, after the flaws, if any, shall have been taken out. So great a stress is laid by modern fashion, on the superficial extent of a brilliant, that the old rules for proportioning its dimensions are now nearly obsolete: the best cutters have entirely discarded the use of measures, and in forming the facets, trust wholly to an accurate and well-practised eye.

The direction being determined on, the artist must be well aware which are the hard points, and which the soft ones; the former being those solid angles of the original octohedron, which it is necessary to cut directly across, and the latter, those solid angles which are to be obliquely divided.

A degree of force which may be safely applied, and is even requisite in making a section through the former, will be very apt to flaw and tear up the laminae when applied to the latter. On these accounts it probably is, that the fatiguing and even painful process of performing this part of the business by hand, is not yet superseded by the use of machinery.

These preliminary matters being settled, the Diamond is imbedded in strong cement, fixed at the end of a stout spindleshaped-stick about a foot long with that portion only projecting, the removal of which is to form the first facet.
The instrument employed for this purpose is another Diamond fixed in a stick similar to the former, with one of the solid angles projecting. In order to collect the powder and shivers that are detached during the process, the cutting is performed over a strong box four or five inches square, furnished with a false bottom perforated with excessively minute holes, in order to sift, as it were, the dust from the shivers; and also with two upright iron pegs fixed on the sides, for the workman to support and steady his fingers against, while with a short repeated stroke somewhat between scratching and cutting, he is splitting off or more laboriously wearing away the Diamond in that part where the facet is to be placed.

This being done, the cement is softened by warming it, and the position of the Diamond is changed, in order to bring a fresh part under the action of the cutting Diamond. When in this slow and laborious way all the facets have been placed upon the surface of the Diamond, the cutting is completed. The stone, if examined by a moderate magnifier, now presents ragged rough edges; and a broken foliated surface with a glistening lustre on those facets that are nearly in the direction of the natural laminae, and on the other facets a more even surface, but of a dull opake greyish white colour.

The shape of many Diamonds is so irregular, that it is necessary to remove pieces of considerable magnitude, in order to bring them to a form proper for cutting. Where the lines of these proposed sections coincide with the natural lamellar structure of the stone, the workman has recourse to the delicate and perhaps somewhat hazardous operation of splitting the Diamond, by which a double advantage is obtained. In the first place there is a great saving of time, and in the second place the slices of shivers are themselves sufficiently large to admit of being cut and polished. The method of splitting is made a great mystery of, thus much however may be mentioned, that when the direction in which the section is to be made has been determined on, it is marked by a very fine line cut by the point of another Diamond; the stone is afterwards fixed by strong cement in the proper position in a block of wood, and then by the application of a due degree of force the section is effected.
The Diamond being thus, by the joint action of splitting and cutting, brought to the required form, the next object is to polish the facets, and at the same time to redress any little inequalities that may have taken place in the cutting.

Emeralds also break under applications of heat and should never be in a ring that is soldered. Under ultraviolet light they may fluoresceslightly, orangish red to red, or they may be inert.

Emeralds come from a number of sources. The best come from Colombia. These are the purest colored and generally the finest stones. The emeralds from Brazil are lighter, have more inclusions and are generally smaller than from other areas. Zambia, Africa, produces some bluish stones and some near-Colombian stones. Zimbabwe is home to a particular emerald known as the sandawana emerald which is generally small with a rich green color. Anything over 1/3 carat is rare.

South Africa produces some low-quality emeralds. Tanzania produces a few very good quality emeralds. Pakistan has just discovered some high-quality emeralds. Afghanistan tends to produce flawed but good colored emeralds. USSR does produce emeralds but doesn’t like to let them out of the country. Australia produces some dubious quality emeralds and North Carolina a few gems. Austria and India occasionally produce emeralds.

Emeralds are not unusual as the word emerald simply indicates an extremely nice version of a fairly common stone known as beryl. It is possible to buy something legitimately called an emerald for about $5 a carat. Obviously this is full of flaws, not transparent and so impure in color it looks more like jade than an emerald. They would never be sold in a jewelry store but emeralds do sell on TV and some of the better magazines for $5 per carat.

Gem quality emeralds range anywhere from $400 to $18,000 a carat, depending upon their quality. As the stones get larger, they become increasingly rare and sell for considerably more money.

Color is a critical factor in emeralds and constitutes about half of the stone’s value (clarity 30% and cut 20%).

Hue describes the primary color and any other colors in the stone. Most emeralds are green hued with a bluish hue also visible, especially the better Colombian-type emeralds.

Tone is the depth or darkness of the color as perceived by the eye.

Saturation is the amount of hue present in any given color.

Depending upon where the emeralds come from, they can exhibit a wide range of color; i.e., Brazilian emeralds are usually lighter toned and less saturated than their Colombian cousins.

The green in the emerald is caused by trace elements of chromium and/or bandium. If the color is very light green, the stone is more correctly referred to as green beryl, not emerald.

Emeralds are often oiled to help their appearance. Normally an uncolored oil such as Merck cedarwood oil is used. The stone may soak in the oil for several days and will actually take the oil in somewhat, helping bring out the color and “wedding” on some of the dry inclusions, making the stone look better.

If one finds an emerald that is mild in color or has a grayish hue, it is a good bet to soak it in oil a couple days and it may regain its green color, not to mention its value.

A more unscrupulous “improvement” is to use dye or oil with color in it. It is possible to influence the color of a stone by having it soak up colored oil.

Other problems with buying emeralds are the fact that there are a number of stones that look like emeralds and overlap colors. Tsavorite, a garnet found in Kenya and Tanzania, looks quite a bit like emerald and has a pure green hue, although it tends to be a little bit more yellowish and never has the blue hue of emerald.

Chrome tourmaline is another stone that looks much like an emerald with a moderately strong green color. Another emerald look-alike comes from Africa and is called chrome diopside. All these stones can, and are, sold as emeralds to the unwary.

Different emeralds from different areas tend to have individually shaped inclusions; i.e., slight pyrite inclusions are typical of emeralds from Colombia although they can be seen in stones from other sources.

A three phase inclusion that shows up under a 1 Ox or stronger microscope, which has a distinctly liquid area, a gas bubble in a solid square rock crystal, salt Iying superimposed on each other inside a jagged edged cavity, is typical of emeralds from Colombia and proves their natural origin.

Tropiche emeralds from Colombia sometime exhibit six fine radiating arms of black carbon inclusions, spoke-like in appearance. Another type of this stone has six arms of emeralds extending from the center of the crystal with a white shaped wedge area in between. When these stones are cut and mounted, they are valuable because of their inclusions.

Emeralds are subject to not only customs duty but market restraints as there is no OSO type organization supporting them. It is possible, if one is smart and has verification equipment, to buy emeralds in other countries, notably South America, and smuggle them to America for profit. Coincidentally, the areas one smuggles emeralds from are the same areas one smuggles cocaine from and these passport stamps tend to yell search me, search me. Some people even go to the trouble of swallowing and then recovering emeralds although obviously, we do not encourage or advise this dangerous practice.

10 – Flawless – no blemishes can be found.

9 – VVS-1 – no flaws inside the table. Possible very small internal
flaws outside the table. If any external flaws are present,
must be very minor.

8 – VVS-2 – very difficult to see flaws with 1 0x magnification power
employed.

7 – VS – 1 – flaws readily seen using 1 0x glass but almost impossible
to see when the stone is viewed from from the back.

6 – VS – 2 – the back looking down through the stone.

5 – Sl – 1 – flaws unable to be seen with the naked eyes but quite
apparent using 1 0x magnification.

4 – Sl – 2 – inclusion may include carbon spots or clouds or feathers
underneath the table or larger flaws outside of the table.

3-1 – I-1 to 3 – this is the least valuable group. They are heavily flawed
and the flaws can be determined with the naked eyes. There
are going to be internal flaws inside the table, maybe
clouds, groups of carbon spots, feathers and/or cracks
that can be seen with the eye.

VVS – Very, very, slightly imperfect
VS – Very slightly imperfect
Sl – Slightly imperfect
I – Imperfect

A flawless stone is simply that. No flaw can be found even with the use of a
10x jeweler’s loupe or 10x microscope. As you go down the scale, the VVS-1 may
have one very small inclusion, generally not in the table (which I’ll cover it
later in the file) portion of the diamond but possibly on the edge. Again,
this flaw is seen only from the front and only on using 10x magnification. It
should not be visible to the naked eye.
As we get into VVS-2, there may be more than one flaw wlth magnification but
they’re still extremely small. One small inclusion may be in the table area of
the diamond.
Into the VS grades, the flaws become larger and more prominent than their VVS
cousins. VS2 may have larger flaws or a number of small spots possibly located
in the table of the diamond that group together and are almost considered one
flaw. They are generally in the same area.
When we talk about 10x magnification, this can be in the form of a jeweler’s
loupe which is a fairly inexpensive must-have item for anyone serious about
stones or a step upward which is the two eyepiece (stereo) microscope, which
many jewelers will have on the premises and will let one borrow when perusing
their stones.
It is wise to always make sure that the magnification device employed is 1Ox.
This is the standard and any variation from this will affect the rating of the
stone to a great degree.
Note that flawless VVS and VS rated stones are rated when looking at the stone
right side up with a 1 Ox magnification device. If you pick up a stone that
supposedly falls under one of these ratings and you can see inclusions with
the naked eye, you’re not looking at a stone that is properly rated.
An Sl-1 rated stone will have inclusions that are very obvious under 1Ox
magnification, but should still be borderline visible or not visible when
viewed with the naked eye. The Sl-1 stone may have these borderline visible,
small dots or inclusions in the table or edge of the stone. An Sl-2 rating
will have larger flaws and probably more than one. These will be easily
visible to the naked eye.
In the I grades, the stones can be considered either quite flawed or imperfect.
Flaws are probably inside the table. There may be flaws of more than one
variety, clouds, cracks or groups of black or white carbon spots will be
visible. This last group of stones obviously are the least valuable and the
least interesting for anyone trying to convert from cash to gems and back
again.
Looking backward we can infer several things, the first of which being if you
can spot a number of inclusions without the use of magnification device, the
stone is going to be graded 1, whether l-1, I-2 or l-3 is open to some
subjective effort, but it will be an I rated stone.
If you can’t find flaws with your eye alone but they do become visible when
using a loupe, one can assume that the stone is an Sl rated stone.
The differentiation between an S stone and a VS stone is that in a VS stone
inclusions may not be seen extremely clearly even with the loupe. If the stone
is turned over and laid on the flat front part (the face of the stone – this
is the table) and one views down from the back of the stone where all the
facets come to a point and the flaws are more readily seen here, one can
assume it is a VS-2 or above rated stone.
Note this viewing is done under white light and with the stone loose. It is
very difficult to judge any of the 4 C’s when the stone is mounted. Mounted
stones are not generally considered for investment grade purchases. The stone
should be loose and one should be able to turn it freely.