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Emerald Pendants
Emeralds
are fascinating gemstones. They have the most beautiful, most intense and most radiant green that can possibly be imagined.
Inclusions are tolerated. In top quality, fine emeralds are even more valuable than diamonds.
The name emerald comes
from the Greek 'smaragdos' via the Old French 'esmeralde', and really just means 'green gemstone'. Innumerable fantastic stories
have grown up around this magnificent gem. The Incas and Aztecs of South America, where the best emeralds are still found
today, regarded the emerald as a holy gemstone. However, probably the oldest known finds were once made near the Red Sea in
Egypt. Having said that, these gemstone mines, already exploited by Egyptian pharaohs between 3000 and 1500 B.C. and later
referred to as 'Cleopatra's Mines', had already been exhausted by the time they were rediscovered in the early 19th century.
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Very cool little perfume bottle about an inch across that I filled with small bits of Columbian emeralds and permanently
capped with sterling silver.
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