My New Home: Colombia

Most people’s idea of Colombia consist of a combination of movie images and real life news. Let me go down the list of movies for you to check off in your mind. You’ve probably seen most of them.

• Collateral Damage
• Clear and Present Danger
• Romancing the Stone
• Proof of Life
• Maria Full Of Grace
• Blow
• Scarface

Ok, now for the news, media stories and prevailing depictions over the years…

• The killing of Pablo Escobar in 1993. Perhaps the greatest criminal the world has ever known and quite possibly the most significant individual in the history of Colombia since Simon Bolivar led the fight for independence against Spain a few centuries ago;
• Armed struggled against the leftist guerrillas, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC); the right wing paramilitary group, the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC); and several other armed groups that often bump into each other in the jungle, evict civilians from their lands, provide security for drug shipping routes, and commit massacres and acts of terrorism;
• Drugs, drugs, drugs;
• Kidnappings for ransom;
• Murder, crime, terrorism;
• Shakira;
• Juan Valdez, the personification of the Colombian coffee industry;
• Beautiful emerald gemstones;
• The United States’ multi-billion dollar investment in Plan Colombia which helps fund the Colombian military and National Police among other things;
• Beautiful Colombian women/marriage agencies in Cali;
• President Bush’s recent 2006 visit to Bogota where an incredible 20,000 policemen were mobilized to provide security for a less than 24 hour visit;
• Mortar attack on President Alavaro Uribe’s inauguration ceremony;
• Rockets nearly hitting President Uribe’s helicopter with him and his wife on board;

For the most part, there is a very common theme to all of these movies and news stories. And that is one of danger. (I won’t exclude Shakira from this generalization because of the real possibility that standing too close to her could result in being knocked out by hipshake gone awry.) It is no secret that Colombia has been known as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for decades now. When you think of drugs trafficking, kidnapping, and guerrilla warfare, you think of Colombia. That’s the way it’s been for nearly 50 years and it’s a hard reputation to shake.

In Colombia’s defense, the situation has changed significantly in recent years. Murder and kidnappings are down something like 90 percent, Colombian citizens are travelling from city to city by car more, rebel leaders and drug lords are being captured or killed, paramilitary groups are disarming, and the overwhelming consensus is that security has improved greatly. Crime in general is down but certainly never far from anyone’s mind.

I may be crazy, but I guess I can say it’s been a dream of mine to come live here. And here I am. I’m sitting in a small, but comfortable apartment in downtown Bogota. It’s pretty safe here in my new home; the building is clean, well maintained, and has 24 hour security. It’s a bit of an oasis in an otherwise dingy and unsavory area. The street below is anything but a place I enjoy walking, day or night. I’ve been involved in milixtary operations in the Middle East, I’ve been a security manager on military installations as a civilian, and I’ve been to Colombia many times; so I have a good understanding and respect for what could be a dangerous situation. I won’t rule my new neighborhood out any time soon, but I am thrilled to be here.

Despite some problems, Colombia is one of my favorite places in the world. The people here are indomitable. Despite an ever-present war, domestic terrorism, prevalent crime, and terribly devastating poverty; the Colombian spirit is something is something I admire and respect greatly. They have a passion and appreciation for life and family unlike anything you’ll ever see. Rich or poor, seldom will you find a people with so much to give of themselves. This is one of the many reasons why I love Colombia and thoroughly enjoy being here.

How Much is my Emerald Worth?

One of the most common types of emails we receive at Embassy Emeralds is the: ‘How much is this emerald worth?’ email. It seems like a good question and certainly an innocent one. After all, many people think that emeralds, diamonds, and other gemstones are bought and sold as a commodity like gold, silver, oil, soybeans, etc… But this just isn’t the case, and so we must invariably reply with the ‘sorry, we’d have to see it in person’ email. Which is not too helpful but we try to explain the reasons why.

Each individual emerald sold to the consumer is valued individually based on the quality of that particular stone. For some gems, assessing quality is a simple matter, but for emeralds, it is perhaps one of the more difficult to assess. This is due to the almost endless possibilities of variance in the important emerald characteristics. One characteristic is the natural tendency for emeralds to contain inclusions...much more so than other gemstones. Inclusions that are acceptable in emeralds are not at all acceptable in most other gemstones such as diamond, sapphires, rubies, and topaz to name just a few. Variances in clarity is another key point to look evaluate, but perhaps most important is color. After all, we love colored stones because of their beautiful colors. A slightly better shade of color from one stone to the next can equate to a difference in price of hundreds or even thousands of dollars per carat.

We say it all the time, but nearly any quality assessment is based on the 4 C’s of Color, Cut, Clarity, and Carat. If you’d like to do an amateur assessment you should look at those areas, but you need to know something about the stone your assessing and you should know and have seen how these 4 C’s can vary from the lowest quality stones to the finest. This is something not many people have the luxury of knowing.

For an accurate assessment by a professional, it is absolutely essential for them to be done in person to see the combination of these important features of the stone and how they work together to create a complete image of quality. It should be stressed (not just noted) that the majority of jewelers are not good at gemstone assessments. Accurate assessments are done by qualified gem dealers or gemologists.

If you’ve ever written the ‘how much is my emerald worth’ email. Don’t feel bad. You didn’t know. But hopefully this blog helps you understand why you didn’t get the response you were looking for or educates others why writing the same email won’t be helpful to them.

Going the Extra Mile(s) for Christmas

Here I am in Colombia. A land feared and misunderstood my most, but a beautiful land and people with unforgettable experiences just waiting for those with the guts to put aside what people say to go see and feel for themselves what Colombia is all about. Ever since my first trip several years ago, it has been a sort of personal dream for me to come live here someday, but I never dreamed or expected it would happen like this. But that’s ok. Right now, this isn’t about me… I’m here for business. I’m here in the middle of Bogota with nothing but emeralds and emerald jewelry on my mind. I’ve left everything behind to spend the next few months personally filling emerald requests received from the website and cementing relationships with our sources that will last for years and years to come. When I’m not busy doing that, I’ll be working with local jewelers to bring new and unique designs to the world via Embassy Emeralds.

It is quite exciting to be putting it all out on the line for something you believe in. I believe in getting the best emeralds to our customers at a reasonable price and that’s what this is all about. We’re taking out the middle man, getting great deals on great stones, and passing it on to our customers. Not only are we doing that, but we’re giving the customer a level of service that is indeed uncommon. Where else can you request something as rare as a fine Colombian emerald to your specifications and then have an expert track it down for you straight from the source. In our minds, that’s great service and we’re sincerely excited about it. Not only do we get to spend our time sorting through hundreds of beautiful emeralds in search of that perfect stone, but we get to satisfy the customer in doing so. Everyone wins. If you’ve been dreaming of an emerald and you’re ready to make your dream a reality, now is the time. Contact us today.

Trapiche Emeralds – A Rare Stone Indeed

I was recently surprised to learn how few people have ever heard of trapiche emeralds. I know they’re quite rare, but I’m talking about people that are jewelry enthusiasts, people with some experience working with gems, and even Colombians, which is the only place on earth where they come from. So, it occurred to me…if these people don’t know, maybe I should sit back and reconsider just how rare they are and write a blog about it. Maybe I can teach someone a thing or two.

Trapiche emeralds are a rare form of emerald found occasionally in certain emerald mines in Colombia. The name trapiche (commonly pronounced tra-peesh in English, tra-pee-chay in Spanish) comes from a grinding wheel used to process sugarcane in Colombia. According to the most readily available information, the only known mines are Muzo, Peñas Blancas, and Coscuez which are located within a span of about 30 km (20 miles) along the Rio Carare. Trapiche emeralds are green as all emeralds are, but black carbon rays radiate out in a six pointed radial spoke pattern from a center core and colorless beryl or black carbon often surrounds the green emerald areas. The center core may be in a hexagonal shape and contain emerald (green beryl) or colorless beryl or it may not form at all.

Every aspect of the trapiche emerald varies greatly from specimen to specimen. This includes the core shape, alignment of the spoke pattern, green emerald portion and its surrounding material. Often the overall crystal shape is irregular with only the core and sometimes green emerald portion forming the regular hexagonal shape associated with beryl crystals but most often even this is irregular. The green emerald portion may also form in a six-leafed pinwheel or flower pattern when the carbon or other foreign material forms in larger concentrations between the prisms of the green emerald crystal.

Trapiche emeralds are highly valued for jewelry because of their rarity and unique characteristics. But it would be extremely unusual to find a trapiche emerald that is faceted. Trapiches are generally cut to shape or sliced and then cabochoned. Some cabochoned slices can be very irregularly shaped, but skilled jewelers can create very unique one of a kind pieces.

Consider for a moment what you’ve just read and let’s put together the facts about emeralds and trapiche emeralds to learn just how rare a good gem quality trapiche emerald is. We have to consider all of these facts together as each one adds almost exponentionally to the rarity of a good trapiche.

• Emeralds are rare stones. Much rarer than diamonds. Gem quality emeralds are even more rare.


• Small emeralds (and trapiches) of a few millimeters are common, relatively speaking, but rarity increases as size does.


• Trapiche emeralds only come from three emerald mines found along a 20 mile stretch of land in Colombia and the percentage of trapiche emerald crystals found in these mines compared to typical emerald crystals would be a small fraction of one percent.


• Many trapiche emeralds are irregularly shaped meaning many are difficult or impossible to work with. Many are oblong in shape and appear stretched.


• The six rays of the trapiche will often not match in terms of length, straightness, thickness, or appearance.


• The trapiche core can be well formed in the hexagonal shape or have no core at all, but instead just be the meeting point for the six rays.


• Emeralds almost always have inclusions and trapiche emeralds are no exception. The presence of inclusions is normal and accepted, but it does increase the likelihood that an unforgivably bad inclusion could disqualify the stone from being considered ‘gem quality’.


• Color can vary greatly as it does in all emeralds from any source. Poor color or very little color at all is an important consideration.


• Clarity also can vary as it does in all emeralds, however, clarity is generally a very minor consideration for trapiches and usually only for the green areas of the stone.

Ok, so we’ve established that a trapiche emerald is very rare and then we narrowed down the field considerably by having quality standards. That eliminated the large majority of an already very rare stone. Trapiche emeralds of good gem quality are very rare indeed; perhaps one of the rarest of gems. Maybe it isn’t that surprising that more people haven’t heard of them…there just aren’t that many out there.

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Embassy Emeralds carries a large selection of loose emeralds, including trapiche, along with beautiful emerald jewelry settings.

How much are emeralds worth per carat?

We often get questions like this, and they are never easy to answer. The correct answer is that an emerald is worth what people will pay for them and that price depends on the quality and rarity of the stone. Several factors, but in particular, the 4 C’s of Color, Clarity, Cut, and Carat become the quality bases of any valuation to be made. You’ll find a discussion of the 4 C’s on our About Emeralds page. If you were to apply those 4 C’s as you browse a varied selection of emeralds, you’d quickly understand their importance in making a determination of an emerald’s quality. In a given selection you’d see cloudy, milky colored stones; emeralds that lack true emerald green color; ‘eye-clean’ stones; heavily included stones; badly cut or chipped stones; as well as small and large stones.

All of these variations are out there, so it would be impossible to assign a single market price to all emeralds. Instead they are evaluated on a more individual basis or sometimes in the ‘lots’ by which they may be purchased from the supplier. The lowest quality emeralds, which probably do not deserve that name, might be found for perhaps $10-$80 per carat if priced fairly in emerald markets. They may be green, but would probably lack the typical coloration and other gem qualities that a specimen of Green Beryl requires to be classified as an ‘Emerald’. Still, there are many who will market these poor quality stones as emeralds at ridiculous prices. Above that, you have stones that you might classify collectively as ‘commercial quality’. That term can be used to describe emeralds in a very broad quality range that would be found in most of the emerald jewelry available to consumers. Prices per carat for these stones vary greatly and can reach a few thousand dollars per carat, but size and the 4 C’s will have a lot to do with it. Beyond that, pricing of very fine emeralds is another world all together. Some may be affordable at perhaps as low as $1,000 but others may reach up to an amazing $50,000 per carat if you can believe it. Though a $50,000/ct emerald would be impossibly rare, very large, absolutely flawless, and would certainly have some important history or other significance to it. Even emeralds in the $5,000-$10,000 price range are rare, but certainly obtainable.

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Loose Emeralds from Embassy Emeralds - Great Selection/Spectacular Prices

10,050 ct Emerald Found in Zambia

Gemfield Resources PLC, (a United Kingdom entity) announced the recent discovery of a 10,050-carat Emerald crystal from their Mbuva-Chibolele mine, located in Zambia. The emerald itself is a 10 centimeter hexagonal crystal and was found about 40 meters from the surface in a wall of pegmatite. This open-pit mine which has been open only since July of last year, is one of two mines in operation by Gemfield Resources PLC in Zambia.

The presence of emeralds in Zambia has been known since the late 1920's, however they were not mined commercially until the middle of the century. It is believed that much of the gem trade in Zambia occurs on the black market, however this is changing and the find by Gemfield Resources represents a positive step.

Emeralds from Zambia tend to have a bluish hue; in many cases even more blue than their more famous cousins from the mines of Chivor in Colombia in part due to a higher concentration of Vanadium. Zambian emeralds tend to require less treatments.

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Embassy Emeralds - Loose Emeralds from Colombia

Romancing the Stone

I saw Romancing the Stone on TV the other day and it was quite interesting to see how my perception and opinions have changed over time. I forced myself to watch it to get a look at the large Colombian Emerald that the movie revolves around. It was tough, but I did make it to the end. Wow, what a cheesy movie. I recall seeing it back in 1984 and I thought it was pretty cool. Maybe I was drawn in by the adventure parts where Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner found themselves in the jungle or the interesting fortress setting of Cartagena, but seeing it again after all this time, I think I must have been on some of the drugs they found in that crashed airplane in the beginning.

How great would it be though, to find a nice Colombian Emerald the size of ‘El Corazon’? Maybe I’ll ask around on my next trip to Colombia.

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