Muzo · Chivor · Coscuez · La Pita
Colombian emeralds, sold the way a dealer would want to be sold to.
Origin mine, carat weight and clarity-enhancement grade disclosed on every stone before you add it to a cart — not after you ask. We buy in Boyacá, grade in daylight, and ship from the United States.
Where to start
Invest · Create · Collect
EXAMPLE LISTINGS — the tables on this page illustrate the format every stone is published in, not stones currently in the safe. Serials and prices shown are examples. They are here so you can see exactly what gets disclosed before you buy — origin mine, cut, colour grade, clarity enhancement, weight and total price, on every item. Tell us what you are looking for and we will send what is actually cut and available, priced, with photographs in daylight and incandescent light.
01 — Loose cut stones
Graded singles, ready to set
For custom rings, collectors and bench jewellers. Listed the way parcels are actually quoted: weight, origin, colour grade, and how much oil is in the stone.
| Stone | Origin | Cut | Colour | Enhancement | Carat | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MGM-0118 | Muzo | Octagon | Vivid green | Minor, cedar oil | 1.12 | $2,850 |
| MGM-0124 | Chivor | Oval | Bluish green | Insignificant | 0.58 | $1,240 |
| MGM-0131 | Coscuez | Emerald cut | Medium green | Moderate, cedar oil | 2.04 | $1,980 |
| MGM-0140 | La Pita | Pear | Vivid green | Minor, cedar oil | 0.94 | $2,310 |
| MGM-0147 | Muzo | Cushion | Deep green | None | 0.31 | $1,690 |
02 — Rough & specimen
Crystals, matrix pieces and trapiche
Uncut material for collectors, lapidaries and mineral cabinets — including trapiche emerald, the six-spoke growth pattern found almost nowhere outside Colombia.
| Piece | Origin | Weight | Size | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hexagonal crystal in calcite | Muzo | 14.2 g | 31 mm | $180 |
| Trapiche slice, polished | Muzo | 1.84 ct | 9 mm | $460 |
| Matrix plate, twin crystals | Coscuez | 62 g | 74 mm | $540 |
| Terminated prism, gem-grade | Chivor | 6.1 g | 22 mm | $1,150 |
03 — Finished jewelry
Set in the United States
Each piece names the stone inside it. The centre stone’s origin, weight and oil grade travel with the ring on a printed card, and on the appraisal.
| Piece | Centre stone | Enhancement | Metal | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solitaire | 1.02 ct, Muzo | Minor, cedar oil | 18k yellow gold | $4,850 |
| Three-stone band | 0.74 ct, Chivor | Insignificant | Platinum 950 | $6,400 |
| Bezel pendant | 1.46 ct, Coscuez | Moderate, cedar oil | 14k white gold | $2,275 |
Provenance
What “disclosed” means here
Nearly every emerald on earth has been oiled. That is normal and accepted — hiding it is not. US sellers are required to disclose clarity enhancement, and most of the trade does it quietly, in the footnotes. We put it in the product title.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| 01 — Bought in Bogotá | Purchased against an export invoice from registered sellers, never cash across a table. |
| 02 — Graded before listing | Weight, dimensions, colour and oil grade recorded in daylight-balanced light. |
| 03 — Reported over 1 carat | Stones above 1.00 ct ship with an independent laboratory report. |
| 04 — Returnable for 14 days | If an independent lab grades a stone lower than we did, the return ships at our cost. |
04 — Trade & bulk
Parcels for the bench and the case
Calibrated goods for jewellers and mixed lots for dealers who cut their own. Parcels ship on memo to established accounts after the first order.
| Parcel | Description | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Calibrated rounds, 2.5–3.5 mm | Commercial to good colour, minor oil. Minimum 20 ct. | $46 / ct |
| Mixed rough, gem-bearing | Unsorted Boyacá material for cutters. | $1,900 / kg |
| Matched pairs, 5–7 mm ovals | Colour-matched for earrings, quoted per pair. | From $780 |
New to emeralds? Read the free Buyer’s Handbook — nine chapters on value, treatment, verification and where the money actually goes. No email required.
Why Colombia
Colombian emeralds formed differently from almost every other emerald on earth
This is not marketing, it is geology, and it is the reason the origin premium exists at all. Most of the world’s emeralds grew in pegmatites or mica schists, where beryllium and chromium meet by a fairly ordinary route. Colombian emeralds grew hydrothermally, in calcite veins cutting through black carbonaceous shale in the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes — a setting rare enough that it produces material with a recognisably different character.
| What the geology produces | Why it matters to a buyer |
|---|---|
| Low iron content | Iron pushes emerald toward blue and grey. Colombian material carries comparatively little of it, which is why the colour reads as a purer, warmer green rather than a cool bluish one. This is the single biggest reason Colombian stones are prized. |
| Chromium and vanadium as the colouring elements | Both are present in Colombian deposits, and together they give the saturated green that most people picture when they picture an emerald. |
| Three-phase inclusions | Microscopic cavities holding liquid, a gas bubble and a solid salt crystal at once. Strongly characteristic of Colombian origin and the first thing a laboratory looks for — which is why country of origin is usually determinable with real confidence. |
| More fissuring | The honest other side. Colombian material tends to be more fractured than Zambian, which is why more of it is oiled. A premium origin does not mean a more durable stone. |
Colombia has two distinct emerald belts, both in the Eastern Cordillera. The eastern belt (Chivor, Gachalá) is the older of the two, formed on the order of sixty-five million years ago. The western belt (Muzo, Coscuez, Peñas Blancas, La Pita) is considerably younger. The belts produce subtly different material, which is the real basis for mine-name distinctions — we cover what each mine actually produces here.
Orientation
Colombia, Zambia, Brazil — a one-minute comparison
You will be offered all three. None is simply better; they are different trade-offs, and a dealer who tells you only Colombian material is worth owning is selling rather than advising.
| Origin | Colour tendency | Practical trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Colombia | Warmer, purer green. Low iron. | The historic benchmark and the origin premium. Often more fractured, so more often oiled. |
| Zambia | Cooler, bluish-green. Higher iron. | Frequently cleaner and less treated. A clean, lightly filled Zambian stone can be the better practical buy, and costs less for it. |
| Brazil | Variable; often lighter and yellower. | Wide quality range. Good value at the commercial end, less competitive at the top. |
We sell Colombian material because that is the relationship we have at source and the story we can document. That is a reason to buy from us if you want Colombian stones — it is not a reason to believe nothing else is worth owning. The full origin comparison is here.
Where to start
Pick the door that matches your actual problem
| If you are… | Start here | The one thing to get right |
|---|---|---|
| Buying a stone to have set | Loose cut stones | Enhancement level. A heavily oiled stone is a heavily fractured stone, and it will find out whether your setting protects it. |
| Having a ring or pendant made, or buying finished | Jewelry, wear and care | The setting. Bezel protects; tension settings are a bad idea on a fractured gem. And never let anyone ultrasonic-clean it. |
| Collecting crystals or cutting your own | Rough & specimen | Knowing that nobody can honestly predict yield — including us. |
| Buying to resell, or filling a bench | Trade parcels | The bottom third of the parcel, not the best two stones in it. |
| Not buying yet, just working out what any of this means | The free handbook | Nothing. Read first. It is ungated and we ask for no email. |
The standard
What we will tell you, and what we refuse to claim
The emerald trade has historically earned a great deal of its margin from the gap between what the seller knows and what the buyer can see. Our position is that closing the gap is better business, because an informed buyer comes back and a deceived one does not.
- Enhancement in the listing, not the footnotes. US sellers are required to disclose clarity enhancement. Much of the trade satisfies that quietly and in small print. We put the grade and the filler type on the item itself.
- Our opinion labelled as our opinion. Where origin or grade is our assessment rather than a laboratory’s finding, the listing says so. We do not launder an eye judgement into the language of certification.
- No claim we cannot support. If a stone has not been tested for treatment, we will not write “no treatment detected.” Untested is not the same as untreated, and conflating the two is the most common quiet lie in the business.
- Accurate declared value on every shipment. We will not under-declare to reduce your duty, however politely you ask — it voids the insurance and puts a false customs declaration in your name. Why, in detail.
- What is wrong with the stone, before you buy it. Included where it matters, weak on one side, an arm that fades out. If we can see it, you get told it.
The test: nothing a buyer would want to know should be discoverable only after payment. Hold us to it. Our full grading and disclosure process is published at provenance — including what we do if an independent laboratory grades a stone lower than we did.