KASHMIRE EMERALD SPECIMEN

This emerald is from a new mine in Pakistan from  the Khaltaro region in kashmire.it was released on the market at the Tucson 2010 gem show.This is best kept as a specimen and not try and cut stone out of it.Interesting display of matrix on base.

Natural untreated

Size 93x60x43   mm app

Weight 1563  app

Emeralds are a variety of the mineral beryl  colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium.

 Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the 10 point Mohs scale 

Emerald tends to have numerous inclusions and surface breaking fissures. Unlike diamond, where the loupe standard, i.e. 10X magnification, is used to grade clarity, emerald is graded by eye. Thus, if an emerald has no visible inclusions to the eye (assuming normal visual acuity) it is considered flawless. Stones that lack surface breaking fissures are extremely rare and therefore almost all emeralds are treated, "oiled", to enhance the apparent clarity. Eye-clean stones of a vivid primary green hue (as described above) with no more than 15% of any secondary hue or combination (either blue or yellow) of a medium-dark tone command the highest prices. This relative crystal non-uniformity makes emeralds more likely than other gemstones to be cut into cabochons rather than faceted shapes