Green Garnets
Green Garnets, also known as demantoids were relatively unknown until recently. This outstanding gem is incomparable in its brilliance and is called demantoid or “diamond-like” because of this very brilliance and incredible luminosity. Its ability to split the light that comes through its facets and break into a veritable rainbow is supposed to be even much better than that of the diamond. Apparently, the green garnet is the most expensive of all garnets and is considered a very precious stone among gemstones. This beautiful gem looks best in daylight and its incandescent light tends to make the stone look yellowish green but it does have great clarity.
Having been discovered in Russia in 1868, Carl Faberge, the famous jeweler is said to have simply adored it for its sheer brilliance and never forgot to include it in his famous collector’s items. Its fame however faded away pretty soon during the First World War until it made a come back in 1990 when a goat heard discovered it once again in Namibia. That is another story in itself and worth reading about, but I don’t aim to go that far at present. The Namibian green garnets come in a range of colors from a light green to an intense blue green with its characteristic brilliance and is said to work extremely well in jewelry. Unfortunately however, the stones from Namibia do not have the horse-tail inclusion found in Russia, which made it a very special kind of precious stone that increased its value. Although this may sound surprising due to the fact that usually inclusions bring down the value of a stone, the green garnets are different in that a well formed horse-tail inclusion increases its value where collectors are prepared to a very high price for this “flaw”.
When buying green garnets, they are usually found in the cushion cut or the round brilliant cut and being the most expensive of all garnets, could even fetch a price of up to US$ 10,000 for a quality stone. The price of green garnets as in many other gemstones depends on its size and number of carats, although less expensive low quality jewels can be bought for few dollars a carat. When buying green garnets, if you are interested in purchasing the best, you should buy the Russian stones, although deposits from countries such as Namibia, Italy and Iran do produce green garnets of a lesser quality and cheaper price.
Like most gem stones, some green garnets are also given the heat treatment to improve its color. The difference however in testing the originality of the green garnet and other stones is that the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) will not be able identify or determine whether the stone has been treated or where it originated from. According to them, current technology is not sufficient to detect these features up to now. Although it has never been synthesized, there are a number of fake green garnets in the market which can be green glass or any other quartz made to look like the real stone. Therefore, you have to be extremely wary when buying green garnets from anywhere.