May’s birthstone, emerald, has been valued since ancient times for its rarity and vivid green color. The earliest emeralds are believed to come from Egypt and can be traced back at least to Cleopatra’s reign. Cleopatra loved these gems and was famous for wearing them and giving them as gifts. Given the beauty of emeralds, it seems easy to understand the allure, but the emeralds available in ancient times were anything but high quality! They were pale, dull, and full of matrix (the rock the crystals grow in). Even so, the ancient world believed in the ability of emerald to bring about abundance and fertility, and even to tell the future. Today, top quality emeralds are still worn by royalty.
The name emerald comes from the Greek word “smaragdos” which simply means “green gem.” Before modern gemstone classifications, stones were identified by color alone. Any two green stones could therefore be considered the same thing. Eventually, as the epitome of green gems, emeralds got to keep the name, while other green gems were given new names, like peridot.
Emerald has a relative hardness of 7.5-8.0, which means that it has good resistance to scratching. However, inclusions make emeralds fairly easy to chip. They are best set in low, protective settings like bezels or low-base prongs, or worn on ears and neck. Emeralds are prized for their rich, bright color and tend to have more inclusions than their sister-stone, aquamarine. These inclusions are a kind of gemstone birthmark; it is sometimes even possible to identify the specific mine that an emerald came from based on the types of inclusions (bubbles, feathers, and tiny crystals of other gems). This is something that can be done with very few other gemstones. Emeralds are commonly oiled in order to reduce the visibility of inclusions, but special care should be taken in cleaning these gems.
