Difference between Natural and Lab Created Emeralds

There are a lot of concepts like 55^th anniversary, May birthdays, and qualities like loyalty and love associated with emeralds. In the realm of colored gemstones, emeralds are among the rarest ones. It’s the softer gem and it makes this gemstone one of the most desirable stones one could ask for.

Emerald is usually formed due to reaction between beryllium and other minerals present in the hydrothermal veins of earth’s crust. Elements like chromium, vanadium and iron help this gemstone to get the green color. Color is the most important characteristic of an emerald gem. While diamonds rely mostly on brilliance, emeralds are valued based on the color and saturation. Due to the different hues present in emerald, this gemstone is preferred for the making of wedding rings. There are different shades in the range between lighter to darker green the emerald may exist. Hence, there is a variety from which a selection can be made.

The quality of emerald

The quality of emeralds may vary as the scale ranges from B (least valuable) to AAA (most valuable). Color and saturation are the factors to be seen when it comes to considering the quality of gemstone. And clarity and brilliance are not that important in this regard. Hence, the buyer can pick between lighter to darker shades. Another factor which is considered while purchasing an emerald is that if the emerald is natural or lab-created.

Talking about natural emeralds, these gemstones have a lot of inclusions in the internal structure. Although the presence of inclusions is not something to be worried about, the extent of inclusions does make a difference when it comes to evaluation. Natural emeralds with fewer inclusions are always high-valued ones. On the other hand, presence of more inclusions brings the quality of an emerald down.

Lab-created emeralds, on the other hand, may differ in color and contain no inclusions. Some people view thing characteristic of lab-created emeralds as something preferable as they tend to see inclusions as flaws. Lab-created emeralds are quite similar to natural ones when it comes to chemical composition. However, the end product is always different from its counterpart due to the difference in color and saturation. A feature which may be considered as a downside of synthetic emeralds is that they do not have color variations in the structure like natural emeralds. Hence, the lab-created emeralds are not rare because of the uniformity in structure. Here, it is quite important to understand the difference between terms. Lab-created or synthetic emeralds are also real emeralds because they are composed of the same elements combined using the same kind of chemical trigger as that related the composition of natural emerald.

When it comes to the price difference, synthetic emeralds are normally considered less expensive as compared to the natural emerald. However, there can be some factors which could make synthetic emeralds more expensive as compared to natural ones in certain circumstances. For instance, a lab-created emerald may be more expensive than a natural emerald with more inclusions and lighter shades.