The most expensive, rare and largest gems

The more difficult it is to get a nugget, the fewer its locations on the planet, the more expensive it will be. Limited inventory makes the price of the gem inconceivably expensive. But demand is high, and while it continues to grow, the value of the rarest stones on the planet will grow with it.

They can be precious and semi-precious. The first list contains stones that are very rare in nature, and they acquire their best decorative qualities after jewelry processing. And the greater the weight and decorativeness of the stone, the more valuable it is. Consider the most expensive (in value) gems on the planet.

• Red diamond. It is distinguished by a rich crimson color. It cannot be obtained anywhere in the world except Australia (we are talking about large locations). The gem is found in small quantities in Brazil. The cost of the red diamond is approximately $ 1 million.

• Grandidierite. It is a transparent nugget with a lot of iron, which can shine in three shades at once - white, pale blue and greenish. There are only 8 such stones in the world, equivalent in value to the characteristics presented to the nugget. The cost of the stone reaches at least 100 thousand dollars.

• Padparadscha. The romantic name translates as "sunrise". If the gem is cut, it will shimmer with a red, pinkish, and salmon tint. There are only 2 stone locations. It costs about 30 thousand dollars.

• Jade. A green sacred stone revered by the ancient Aztecs. The figurine of the Buddha, the symbol of Thailand, is made from this stone. He is also known as the mascot of Jade (hence the name), the main character of the internationally popular telenovela "Clone".The cost of the stone is about 20 thousand dollars.

• Diamond. It is known as the hardest stone on the planet. The price is influenced by the properties of a particular instance. The highest quality ones will cost about 15 thousand dollars.

The list goes on, and there will definitely be sapphire and emerald in it. Sapphire has a bright blue color, while emerald has green. Their price fluctuates in the range of 6-8 thousand dollars. The same list will include alexandrite, paraiba tourmaline, ruby.

Semi-precious stones are less elite than their counterparts. Hence, they are more affordable. An example of such a stone is aquamarine, for one carat the cost will be $ 30-60. Amethyst it is also considered the most expensive among the quartz.

They become "superstars" - they are sold at major auctions, their fate is monitored by the media and jewelry specialists, art dealers, etc. Let's talk about the famous large minerals.

• Mogul... This is one of the largest emeralds on Earth, it was sold at the beginning of the millennium for $ 2.2 million at Christie's. The weight of the stone is -217.8 carats, the height is 10 cm. The lines of a Muslim prayer are engraved on it, as well as an oriental pattern in a floral form. The name of the owner of the stone was not disclosed.

• Yellow diamond "Tiffany"... It is a very large stone, its weight before cutting was 287.42 carats. The stone was mined in South Africa, bought in 1878 by the American jeweler Charles Tiffany. A golden bird inlaid with diamonds and rubies was placed on the already cut stone. The decoration was worn only 2 times, one of them - scenes of the world hit "Breakfast at Tiffany's" with Audrey Hepburn.

• Cullinan White Diamond (or "Star of Africa"). It originally weighed 3,026 carats. Found it at the beginning of the century in South Africa, it was assumed that the stone is a fragment of an even larger crystal. In 1908, it was split, several diamonds were made from the stone, and only one piece of 69.5 carats was left uncut. One of the "shards" of the stone is inserted into the crown of the British Empire.

• The largest unnamed ruby ​​found in Greenland... It weighs 440 carats and has an integral structure. In terms of hardness, ruby ​​is the second after diamond, although it is 140 times softer than the "stone of stones".

• Diamond "Regent". In 1701, a 410-carat stone was found in the mines of Golconda. Many misadventures and human deaths are associated with it. Today the "accursed" diamond is kept in the Louvre.

• Sapphire "Lonely Star". Its weight - 9179 carats, had another name - Harol Roper. Among sapphires, in principle, there are many well-known large stones. For example, the famous "Eye of Allah" adorned the throne of Shah Nadir, and the 62-carat "Logan" sapphire was adorned in the ring of John Rockefeller.

It is worth mentioning here the stone, which is known even to those who have little interest in jewelry. Remember that huge pendant, the color of the deep sea, that the heroine of the Oscar-winning "Titanic" Rose wore? By the way, the jewelry had its own prototype, the fatal Hope diamond.

For example, the jeweler who originally sold the stone to Louis XIV was torn apart by a pack of dogs. The king himself later wounded himself on a rusty nail and died of blood poisoning. The next owner of the stone was Marie Antoinette, who was known to have been awaited by the guillotine. The new owner of the stone, Henry Hope, died of a very strange illness, his son was poisoned, his grandson lost his fortune. And there are a few more terrible tragedies on this list.

When James Cameron was looking for an "actor" for the role of a blue diamond, he went through many expensive, unique, beautiful options. But he rejected everything. He found the real blue diamond very dark, the sapphires seemed to him too dull. But the tanzanite conquered Cameron immediately.And this is also a very expensive stone, because it is mined only in African Tanzania. Best Romantic Scenes the tanzanite itself was worthy of an Oscar, after all, after the success of the film, thousands of fans were waiting for a copy of Rose's necklace on sale.

To measure the hardness of a mineral, the Mohs scale is used. Friedrich Moos - German geologist, crystallographer, developed a scale for comparing metals by hardness using the scratch method. This means that scratches and grooves were created on the surface of the mineral by another mineral (or other material). What was included in the list of the strongest and strongest stones?

1. Diamond. Formally, he deservedly leads on the Mohs scale (10). The hardness of a stone depends on its purity. And even the purest and hardest diamond can be scratched, but only with other diamonds. And although the diamond retains the primacy in the hardness scale, this is a little outdated data. Imagine how many minerals a person might not have studied yet. And relatively recently, researchers said that there are 2 more stones that have managed to surpass diamond in hardness. It is wurtzite boron nitride, which naturally forms as a result of a volcanic eruption. It is 18% stronger than diamond. Lonsdaleite is a hexagonal diamond, with 6 atoms in its grid, not 8 (as in a diamond). It is 58% harder than diamond.
2. Corundum. It is a crystalline form of aluminum oxide with traces of various inclusions. Blue corundum is known to us as sapphire, red as ruby, orange-yellow as padparadscha. On the Mohs scale, the hardness is 9.
3. Topaz. Hardness 8 on the Mohs scale. It is a silicate mineral of aluminum and fluorine, which is actively used in jewelry, and is popular with customers. It is considered semi-precious.
4. Quartz. Gets 7 on the Mohs track. It is the second most abundant mineral after orthoclase. It is widely used in industry.
5. Orthoclase. An important mineral that is involved in glass production, ceramics, porcelain, can be included in cleaning powders. Gets 6 on the Mohs track.

Following these stones go apatite, fluorite, calcite, gypsum and talc.

And now about the stones, the names of which you might have never heard before.

• Musgravit. In Australia, in the area of ​​the Musgrave mountain range, the mineral was first discovered. Then he was found in Madagascar, Greenland, Tanzania, even in Antarctica. Green and purple musgravites are of particular value.
• Painite. It was discovered in Burma in 1956. Mineralogist Arthur Payne saw a strange mineral, and the find was named after him. Today, bright red gems are of particular value, while brown ones are cheaper. In recent years, the price of the gem has grown dramatically.
• Eremeevit. The stone found in Siberia is named in honor of the Russian academician Eremeev. It can be transparent, and maybe sky blue and pale green. A hard stone (you definitely cannot call it fragile) with a bright shine, it costs $ 10,000 per carat.
• Taaffeite. The peculiarity of the stone is that it was discovered after processing. The gem is very rare, ranging in color from pale pink to lavender.

As for the most "star" stones in the world ranking, it is difficult to choose a clear leader. But unusual, for example, can be called Graff Pink, this is the most expensive pink diamond on the planet. Laurence Graff is the world's largest gemstone dealer, in 2010 he bought a 24.78 carat pink diamond.

The world of stones and rare minerals is like a child's game of Treasure Island, it is difficult to get enough of it and lose interest if you have already delved into the history of mineralogy, if you have traced the fate of more than one great stone and more than one human history associated with it. Many questions arise: why people give crazy money for some kind of jewelry, why are such gems needed, what is their real value?

For the most expensive gemstones, see below.