Over the past several months, due to various enhancements amongst various colored stones, the demand for untreated or unenhanced stones has increased. If a stone is in fact unenhanced, there can be no question as to what treatment has or hasn’t been applied to it. However, pending on what type of gem we’re talking about, these are more or less common-and priced accordingly.
I came across some piece of information that said if you wish to tell if an aquamarine is heated or not, a gemologist with a standard loupe can tell. If you’re very lucky, and/or you’re looking at a rough specimen, that may be one thing. The only stones that I’ve seen that have been said to have been unheated looked more like green beryl than they did aquamarine. In case you’re wondering, green beryl is the same chemical composition as an emerald, except they are much cleaner and significantly less saturated in color. A lot of times, aquamarine rough comes out of the ground in a unique shade of green.
Well, do you want a green aquamarine or do you want a blue aquamarine? The overwhelming majority of buyers want blue, and not green. So if it’s blue it’s heated. Is it?
Consider the following 2 images:
