One could conceal a pound of such gems, worth, say, $10,000,000 around his person, and a porter could pack the equivalent of $2,000,00,000 worth of fine gems, except for the fact that such an amount of fine gems could not be procured. With the exception of radium and a few other very rare elements, the finer precious stones, the diamond, emerald, ruby and sapphire, are the most valuable of all commodities, and their value is concentrated in small weight and bulk. He recognized the essential fundamentals of modern gem valuation. ranked the gems as follows: emerald, diamond, ruby and sapphire. The earliest satisfactory gem prices are those of the Arabian mineralogist, Teifaschi, who in 1150 A.D. Theophrastus, who lived from 372–287 B.C., states that the carbuncle, in which designation, doubtless, both our garnet and ruby and perhaps our spinel are included, “is extremely valuable, one of a very small size being prized at forty aurei” (about $180). Unfortunately, neither is the weight of the stone known, nor the relative value of the material and the engraving. Ismenias, with typical musician’s temperament, flew into a passion, crying that the agent had ill-treated him by his bargaining and by thus impairing the merit of the stone. He sent an agent to purchase the gem, and by shrewd bargaining the latter, returned with it and two of the six staters. The musician, Ismenias, purse-proud and ostentatious, heard of an emerald engraved with the figure of the nymph Amymone, obtainable in Cyprus for six gold staters (about $30.65). The earliest gem price known to me, however, dates only from the 4th century before Christ. Since about 100,000 B.C., man has prized and has desired to possess beautiful stones, and almost from that date he began to offer a rabbit for a bit of chalcedony or a worked flint for a quartz crystal. To emphasize his delight, he refused to look at the architect’s bill, but tore it up and threw the fragments into the River Fez.
“That which is beautiful is never too costly, nor can anyone pay too little for that which gives pleasure to all,” said Abu Inan Farés, Sultan of Morocco, on completion of a beautiful building at Fez. Reprinted from Economic Geology, August, 1935, Vol. 30, No. 5, pp. This is one of the few scholarly studies of gem prices in existence and we are sure you will find it fascinating. Webmaster’s Note: We are pleased to reprint this important historical study of gem prices from Sydney H.
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