Not everyone prefers to have gemstones that are faceted, carved or cabbed by manufacturers. Some collectors still prefer nature's own beautiful forms for their treasures. A lot of these collectors specifically seek out beautiful minerals that are still housed in a part of their natural earthy or rocky environment.

We call these 'en-matrix' or 'in-matrix' specimens, because they still have a portion of host rock housing them. Many beautiful pieces of in-matrix minerals can be found at famous museums all over the world. Other uncut minerals are also beautifully left as is, in order for the public to see how crystals can grow in nature.

Uncut Gemstones Can Command Very High Prices, Especially Pristine Specimens Still in Their Rough Rock Matrix.

The Devonshire emerald in the 'Vault' area of London's Natural History Museum is a good example of this. It shows us how emerald grows with the crystal habit of a hexagonal column, and makes it easy for people to observe due to its large size.


Mineral specimens can range from quite affordable to incredibly costly in terms of price. They can also be as small as your fingernail, to as large as a basketball player. It really depends on the individual collector on which types he or she would fancy to keep.

The size groups used in the market are normally as follows:

Thumbnail - These are the ones that can be as small as your fingernail, ranging from less than 1 cm to about 3 cm in height or width.

Miniature - A little bigger than your thumbnail specimens, rising from 3cm to a maximum of around 6cm in size.

Cabinet - Also called medium size by some people, this size range spans from 6cm to about 10cm.

Large Cabinet - This is a more general range stating a size over 10cm in height or width, however significantly large pieces are sometimes called "Museum Piece or Museum Size".

When shopping around for a beautiful mineral specimen, look for the piece that catches your eye within the first two seconds of a glance. They say that beautiful pieces have nothing to hide, and that they captivate public gaze quite automatically and naturally.


Pieces with large, or well-formed crystals usually cost more. Likewise those that form according to famous habits may also command high prices. Such examples would be double barrel-shaped blue sapphires, hexagonal columns of emerald and perfectly terminated diamond octahedra crystals.

Transparent clarity and saturated color also increase the value of most mineral specimens. Many connoisseurs will bid at auction for a fine en-matrix piece with beautiful vivid crystals that look like they've been unearthed with the utmost care and precision.

If you'd like to see the visual criteria for choosing excellent mineral specimens, why not visit a museum and ask if they house a geological or mineralogical collection. Usually the pieces here are carefully chosen by experienced buyers or curators for the museum's best interest.

If you've ever been to a high end jewellery auction, you'll notice that many of the gems up for bidding will have a document called a provenance statement. This may be shown in alternative ways, but basically it functions just like an autobiography for the stone. It would tell us about the gem's history, any famous owners that carried it, and of course the place where it was unearthed.

Many connoisseurs prefer gemstones with this document because it adds an additional value to their purchase. This is true especially for high-end stones that belong to the top hierarchies of color, clarity, and carat weight within their respective varieties.

High End Gemstones at Auction Can Fetch Even Greater Prices When Source Documentation Reveals Them to Have Originated from A Famous Mining Locality.

One of the most recognized declarations in a provenance statement is usually the origin location of a gemstone. Now, why do people find this important? Well, within the long history of each specific gemstone, notable sources sometimes come to light. These are places where a suitable quantity of very high end gems were mined from, so eventually they make a name for themselves amongst the jewellery communities.

People often say for example, that the term Kashmir sapphire should refer only to the finest specimens that boast the saturated cornflower blue color. This label stemmed from sapphire's historical Kashmir mine, where a lot of the velvety intense blue sapphires of legend were unearthed. Despite that mine's relatively short life, it was able to make such an impression on the trade, that even today the term "Kashmir" is used synonymously with high-end stones of a certain color.

This doesn't mean that all of the stones from that locality were good, but history seems to writes how people in the present time perceive things. Nowadays a beautiful blue sapphire at auction may likely fetch more value if its provenance statement declares it to be a product of the Kashmir region. The same goes for top tier rubies from Mogok, Myanmar, and vivid emeralds from Muzo, Colombia.

A gemstone's actual quality is inherent to itself, rather than solely being attributed to a certain place. Those famous localities can also produce poor quality products, and the opposite is also true for sources might not be as popular.

Though that being said, a famous source does add value to a gemstone in today's current market, more because of the community's demand (due to perception). People like gems that tell a story, especially if that story is about its rarity and scarcity as one of the stones mined out from a special time and place.

Sources have to be proven though, in order to add that kind of merit. Gemological laboratories sometimes include the entry "source origin opinion" as a part of their gemstone reports, using the presence of trace elements and chemistry to estimate where a certain gem originated from.

Sometimes in the Philippines, when we hear the words 'fancy' and 'diamond', we think of an imitation or simulant stone. Though, if we look at the international terminologies, the term 'fancy' is actually often used to describe natural diamond in terms of its outward appearances.

Fancy cuts refer to diamonds with any shape or cut other than a round brilliant one. Examples of this could be the emerald or trilliant cut. Many dealers are familiar with this term, and so when shopping at international venues like the September Jewellery Fair in Hong Kong, or the Baselworld Fair in Switzerland, be sure not to confuse our local lingo for how people normally use these terms.

Fancy colored diamonds are another thing. When the industry refers to a fancy colored diamond, it simply means any diamond that possesses color. In the case of diamonds that are yellow, gray or brown, they must also possess a slightly higher amount of saturation compared to the other hues in order to qualify for a fancy color grade.

Speaking about price, the general trend shows us that fancy colored diamonds can in fact cost more than colorless diamonds. The top tier of these can be seen at famous auction house events like the ones hosted by Christie's in Geneva.

A single 59.6 ct pink diamond called the Pink Star (renamed to the Pink Dream) is actually being valued at about 72 million dollars today. This particular stone was once being marketed by Sotheby's (another big name in jewellery auctions) and participated at one of its own renowned auctions. Its valuation and reception is a prime example of how fancy colored diamonds in the highest grade range can outshine even a D-flawless colorless stone.

Fancy colored diamonds cost a lot because they lack a consistent supply to satisfy their rising demand. They do however have a 'strong enough' supply to stir up fans in several international markets. Couple that with the news and marketing from different jewellery houses, and you have a rare segment of the diamond industry that connoisseurs all over the world want to share in.

Certain Natural Hues of Fancy Colored Diamonds Can Command Much Higher Prices Than Equivalently Sized Colorless Counterparts, Due Rarity Factors and An Increasing Demand From the Trade.

The Argyle mine in Australia is probably the only currently known major source of fancy pink diamonds. Its operation is run by the Rio Tinto group, which also hosts the Argyle Pink Tender auctions in Geneva for many of the stone's illustrious clientele.


Grades for fancy colored diamonds are as follows:
Faint, Very Light, Light, Fancy Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense, Fancy Dark,
Fancy Deep, and Fancy Vivid

(This scale goes from most affordable to most expensive via left to right fashion.)

Terminology would dictate that the grade modifier be mentioned before the specific diamond's color. For example: 'Fancy Light Purplish Pink'

This phrase would constitute the color grade of a stone instead of the usual 'letter grade' you would normally see used on colorless diamonds.

One more thing to note, is that the saturation level requirement for each grade is differently evaluated per color of diamond. This means that a fancy intense red diamond may not necessarily possess the exact same color intensity level as a fancy intense yellow diamond.

This is because the specific rarity scale is actually different per fancy diamond color group.

These exotic and scarce diamonds are certainly marvels of nature, and they can be a wonderful addition to any jewellery suite if one is willing to pay the price for their beauty.