Every Green Gemstone Ranked By ACTUAL Value
Your emerald is probably filled with oil. I'm serious. Over 99 percent of them are, and nobody at the counter is going to tell you that.
Green is the color where the fakes, the lookalikes, and the treated stones are everywhere — and sellers are counting on you not knowing the difference. One green stone on this list sold for 27 million dollars. Another fools people across a dinner table and costs about eight bucks.
Counting all the way up to number one — the most valuable green on earth, and most people in the West have never even heard of it. Comment your guess before we start.
What we cover:
• Malachite: never faceted, always polished into a dome — and the pressed-powder fakes sold at real-stone prices
• Moss agate's engagement ring trap: mineral inclusions mistaken for the whole value, while the markup actually lives in the setting
• Green aventurine constantly sold as "jade" or "Indian jade" — and the acetone test that exposes dyed fakes in seconds
• Moldavite: literal meteorite glass from the Czech Republic — and the wrinkled, eroded texture that separates real from fake glass
• Chrome diopside: the emerald impersonator where bigger is actually worse, and size becomes a warning sign instead of a selling point
• Green apatite: named after the Greek word for "to deceive" — gorgeous, glowing, and soft enough to chip on a doorknob
• Green beryl: emerald's identical twin mineral, often cleaner than emerald, sold for a tenth of the price — until a seller relabels it
• Sphene: more fire than a diamond, and the sales tactic of dazzling you under bright lights while never mentioning it's too fragile for daily wear
• Nephrite jade's Type A/B/C grading system — and the one question that protects you from dyed or resin-filled stones
• Green moissanite, lab emerald, and lab green diamond: harder and more brilliant than half the natural stones on this list, for pocket change
• Chrome tourmaline: the serious emerald impersonator that passes for fine Colombian emerald in daylight, at a fraction of the price
• Green spinel: almost always untreated, in a world where nearly every colored gem is treated — a genuine sleeper
• Green sapphire: a 9 on hardness, second only to diamond, sitting there taking decades of wear while emerald cracks
• Tsavorite garnet: 200 to 1,000 times rarer than emerald, and usually cheaper
• Demantoid garnet: the inclusion that raises value instead of lowering it, and the 5-carat stone that sold for $28,000 a carat at Sotheby's
• Green Paraiba tourmaline: the neon copper stone dealers thought had to be fake — and the sneakiest trick on the whole list involving one missing word: "African"
• Natural green diamond: rarer than pink, with color sitting in a razor-thin surface layer that can vanish with one wrong cut
• Imperial jadeite: the traffic-light glow that sold for over 27 million dollars in a single necklace — the most valuable green gemstone on earth
The full ranking, 23 to 1:
Malachite | Chrysoprase | Moss Agate | Green Aventurine | Moldavite | Chrome Diopside | Green Apatite | Peridot | Green Beryl | Sphene | Nephrite Jade | Green Moissanite/Lab Emerald/Lab Green Diamond | Green Tourmaline | Chrome Tourmaline | Green Spinel | Green Sapphire | Emerald (Commercial) | Tsavorite Garnet | Emerald (Top 1%) | Demantoid Garnet | Green Paraiba Tourmaline | Natural Green Diamond | Imperial Jadeite
Not sponsored. All findings sourced from independent gemological research, auction records from Sotheby's, and GIA grading standards.
00:00 Intro
00:40 Number 23: Malachite.
01:31 Number 22: Chrysoprase.
02:11 Number 21: Moss agate.
03:12 Number 20: Green aventurine.
04:12 Number 19: Moldavite.
05:15 Number 18: Chrome diopside.
06:07 Number 17: Green apatite.
06:53 Number 16: Peridot.
07:49 Number 15: Green beryl.
08:45 Number 14: Sphene.
09:43 Number 13: Nephrite jade.
10:54 Number 12: Green
12:18 Number 11: Green tourmaline.
13:12 Number 10: Chrome tourmaline.
14:04 Number 9: Green spinel.
15:04 Number 8: Green sapphire.
16:11 Number 7: Emerald, the everyday kind.
17:23 Number 6: Tsavorite garnet.
18:27 Number 5: Emerald, the top 1 percent.
19:29 Number 4: Demantoid garnet.
20:36 Number 3: Green Paraiba tourmaline.
21:54 Number 2: Natural green diamond.
23:11 Number 1: Imperial jadeite.
Which trap almost got you? And did anyone actually guess number one? Tell me in the comments, and share this with anyone about to buy green jewelry without knowing what's actually hiding inside it.