GEMSTONES

Not too many years ago, much of the garnet that was on the market was reddish or red-brown in color and not very desirable in my opinion. Today, there are new finds of garnet coming out of Africa that rival some of the best gemstones with colors ranging from pink, purple, strawberry, green, yellow and orange. Top gemstones will have highly saturated color without being too dark, and, of course, few or no inclusions. Many of these new finds have a high refractive index so faceted stones have a lot of flash and brilliance. Make no mistake, high quality rare color garnets (like purple) will sell for $100-$500/ct or Tsavorite that can sell for more than $1,000/ct.  (See also Tsavorite and Mali Garnet)