Aquamarine is a member of the Beryl family, as is
Emerald and Heliador. Aquamarine is the birthstone
for the month of March, and is used all types of
jewelry applications. It has a hardness of 7.5 and
wears very well. The medium deep blue stones are the
most sought after. Unless noted, none of these
Aquamarines have been heated. Heating is common to
remove green and turn the stone more blue. Often
inexpensive greenish blue aqua is heated to produce a
more valuable blue color.
Grading System Used
Color is the most important and complex to grade. Color is made up of three components, hue, saturation and tone. Color will be graded on a scale of 1 to 10 taking these three factors into consideration.
Clarity is graded on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being loop clean under a 10X loop.
Brilliance - will be a combination of Cut, Sparkle, light return, Proportion and Crystal. Graded on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best.
Total Quality Rating - Is the combined score of these 3 with a possible best score of 10
Grading System Used
Color is the most important and complex to grade. Color is made up of three components, hue, saturation and tone. Color will be graded on a scale of 1 to 10 taking these three factors into consideration.
Clarity is graded on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being loop clean under a 10X loop.
Brilliance - will be a combination of Cut, Sparkle, light return, Proportion and Crystal. Graded on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best.
Total Quality Rating - Is the combined score of these 3 with a possible best score of 10
