Aquamarine Stone: The Complete Guide to Color, Quality, Value and Care

Aquamarine is the gemstone that looks like the sea on a calm morning: transparent, cool, and quietly luminous rather than loud. It is a variety of beryl, which makes it emerald's sibling, yet it behaves almost the opposite way in the trade. Where emerald is prized despite its inclusions, aquamarine is expected to be flawless. Where emerald rough is small and fractured, aquamarine grows in enormous clean crystals. This guide covers what the stone actually is, why some aquamarines are worth a hundred times more than others, where the best material comes from, what heat treatment and "lab-created" really mean, and how to choose and care for a piece.

What Is Aquamarine?

Beryl in its calmest color.

Aquamarine is the blue to greenish-blue variety of beryl, a beryllium aluminum silicate that also gives us emerald (green), morganite (pink) and heliodor (yellow). Pure beryl is colorless. Per the Gemological Institute of America, aquamarine's blue comes from trace iron in the crystal, and the stone is dichroic, showing near-colorless from one direction and a stronger blue from another. Cutters use that to orient the deepest blue face-up.

The name is Latin, aqua marina, "water of the sea," and Roman writers were already describing the stone by the first century. Sailors carried it as a talisman for calm seas, which is where its long association with courage, clear thinking and safe passage began. The crystals form in granite pegmatites, slow-cooling pockets that give beryl room to grow large. That is why an eye-clean aquamarine of five, ten or twenty carats is an ordinary thing to find in a good jeweler's case, while an eye-clean emerald of the same size is a museum piece.

Aquamarine Color and Heat Treatment

Why most aquamarine is heated, and why that is not a scandal.

Aquamarine's color runs from a pale, almost icy blue to a saturated medium blue, often with a hint of green. The green comes from a second form of iron in the crystal. Gentle heating to roughly 400 degrees Celsius converts it, removing the yellowish or greenish cast and leaving a cleaner blue. The result is permanent, stable and impossible to detect, so gem laboratories describe pure blue aquamarine as "probably heated" and the whole market prices it that way. Some buyers deliberately seek out untreated greenish stones for their sea-glass character, and those are a legitimate, slightly rarer taste.

The color names you will hear

• Santa Maria. The benchmark: a deep, highly saturated blue named for the Santa Maria de Itabira mine in Minas Gerais, Brazil, which first produced it. The original mine is essentially exhausted.
• Santa Maria Africana. Material from Mozambique with the same saturated blue, given the Brazilian name plus a suffix.
• Espírito Santo. A lighter, brighter blue from the Brazilian state of the same name.
• Maxixe. A deep, cobalt-like blue caused by a color center from natural or artificial irradiation. It is beautiful and it fades in light and heat, so it is sold at a discount and must be disclosed.

Color intensity matters more than almost anything else. A pale stone in a large setting reads washed out, especially against yellow gold, while a smaller stone with real saturation looks deliberate and expensive. If the color has to do the work, buy saturation before size.

How Aquamarine Quality Is Judged

The same four factors as any colored stone, weighted very differently.

1. Color. The most valued color is a moderately strong, dark blue to slightly greenish blue. Purer and more intense blues command higher prices, and GIA notes that small African stones from Nigeria, Madagascar and Mozambique can show saturated color under five carats and fetch a premium per carat for it.
2. Clarity. Most faceted aquamarine is eye-clean, and buyers expect it to be. Stones with visible inclusions are usually cut as cabochons, beads or carvings instead. Two-phase liquid inclusions and fine parallel tubes are the typical natural features.
3. Cut. Emerald cuts, ovals and cushions are the classics, and the stone's dichroism lets a cutter maximize color and weight retention at the same time. Because the rough is affordable, well-proportioned cuts are the norm rather than the exception.
4. Carat weight. Large stones are plentiful, so price per carat rises far more gently than in ruby or alexandrite. Above roughly 25 carats demand drops because the pieces become hard to wear, and per-carat prices actually fall.

How Much Does Aquamarine Cost?

One of the widest price spreads in colored stones.

Because supply is generous and quality varies so much, aquamarine spans everything from inexpensive pale goods to collector material. The International Gem Society notes the unusual pattern that stones over 25 carats cost less per carat than smaller stones of equal quality. The practical ranges below reflect the current retail market for loose, faceted, eye-clean stones.

Finished jewelry varies far more than loose stones, because the metal, accent stones and workmanship set most of the price. Two rings holding similar aquamarines can sit in very different tiers, so compare the stone's color and clarity first and the setting second. If you are weighing it against other blues, our guides to aquamarine versus sapphire and aquamarine versus diamond put the costs side by side.

Where Aquamarine Comes From

Brazil sets the standard; Africa and Pakistan supply much of the market.

For most buyers, origin is a point of interest rather than a price driver. Unlike sapphire, where a Kashmir certificate can multiply value, an aquamarine is judged almost entirely on the color, clarity and cut in front of you.

Famous Aquamarines

The stone that grows big enough to become sculpture.

• The Dom Pedro. The largest cut aquamarine in the world, a 10,363-carat obelisk carved by Bernd Munsteiner from a crystal found in Pedra Azul, Minas Gerais, around 1980. It stands roughly 14 inches tall and has been on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History since 2012.
• The Brazilian parure of Queen Elizabeth II. The people of Brazil gave the Queen an aquamarine necklace and earrings for her 1953 coronation; she later had a matching tiara made, and the set became one of the most photographed aquamarine suites in the world.
• The 1910 Marambaia crystal. A single Brazilian crystal weighing over 240 pounds and clear enough to see through end to end, cut into stones that supplied the trade for years and fixed Brazil's reputation as the source of the finest material.

Hardness, Toughness and Daily Wear

Strong enough for a ring, if the setting is chosen well.

The honest version: aquamarine is a practical daily-wear stone for most lives, though it is not sapphire. Fabric, skin and indoor surfaces will not mark it. Sustained grit and hard knocks on the corners of a pointed cut can, so a pear, marquise or kite shape wants protected tips, and every aquamarine ring should come off for gardening, lifting and gym sessions. A bezel, semi-bezel or halo is the setting that lets an aquamarine ring live on the hand for years. If you are choosing it as a center stone, our guide to what an aquamarine engagement ring means and what to know first covers settings, metals and the honest durability verdict, and the wider picture across blue stones is in our blue gemstones guide.

Natural vs Lab-Created Aquamarine

The label to read twice before you buy.

Genuine synthetic aquamarine exists. It is beryl grown by the hydrothermal method, chemically and physically identical to mined stone, and it is rare in jewelry because natural aquamarine is affordable enough that growing it rarely pays. That creates a trap: a great deal of what is marketed as "lab-created aquamarine," particularly at very low prices, is not beryl at all but synthetic spinel or glass tinted to match. Those are simulants. They can be perfectly pretty, but they are not aquamarine and should not be priced as if they were.

Two questions settle it. Ask the seller to state the material, and for anything of value ask for a report that names the species as beryl. Natural aquamarine typically shows delicate liquid inclusions and fine growth tubes under magnification; hydrothermal synthetic beryl shows chevron-like growth patterns; spinel and glass show neither. At Aquamarise® every listing states the stone's origin plainly, so you always know whether the aquamarine in a piece is natural or lab-grown beryl.

Bestselling aquamarine

Aquamarine & Moonstone Fairy Leaf Ring Set

A sea-blue aquamarine framed by sterling silver leaves and moonstone accents, sold as a two-ring set that stacks straight out of the box.

View the set

Birthstone, Anniversary and Meaning

The first stone of spring.

Aquamarine has been the birthstone for March since the modern list was standardized in 1912, and it is the traditional gift for the 19th wedding anniversary. Its symbolism follows its name: sailors trusted it for safe passage, medieval writers credited it with clear sight and a calm mind, and modern buyers tend to land on serenity, honesty and courage. Because the color is so wearable, March birthstone jewelry rarely stays a once-a-year piece.

The month's full story, including bloodstone as March's second birthstone, is in March birthstone rings, and the whole calendar is in what is my birthstone. For gifts across every month, browse birthstone jewelry.

Aquamarine Jewelry: Rings, Necklaces, Earrings and Metals

A stone that suits nearly every setting and skin tone.

• Rings. The natural centerpiece. Solitaires and slim stacking bands keep it understated; halos, east-west settings and emerald cuts with accents make a statement. Browse aquamarine rings, and for bridal designs the dedicated aquamarine engagement rings and aquamarine wedding bands.
• Necklaces and pendants. The easiest way to wear the stone daily. A small pendant adds color without effort; halo and drop styles carry into evening. See aquamarine necklaces.
• Earrings. Because aquamarine is so transparent, even small studs read bright and crisp. Pear and emerald-cut drops are the statement option. See aquamarine earrings.
• For couples and for men. Crushed aquamarine inlays in tungsten and titanium bands bring the stone into men's jewelry; see men's aquamarine jewelry and aquamarine couples rings.
• Vintage-inspired. Milgrain, filigree and Art Deco frames suit the stone's clarity; see vintage aquamarine jewelry.

Best metals for aquamarine

Aquamarine also layers well: with diamonds or moissanite for brilliance, with moonstone or white topaz for tonal lightness, with pearls for softness, and with deeper sapphire for contrast. Setting formats from solitaire to hidden halo are compared in our styles and setting types guide.

For two

Aquamarine Leaf Couples Ring Set

A sterling silver aquamarine leaf ring paired with a men's band, so both partners carry the March stone.

View the set

How to Care for Aquamarine

Simple, with two cautions.

• Routine cleaning: warm water, mild dish soap and a soft brush; rinse and dry with a lint-free cloth.
• Ultrasonic and steam: usually safe for clean stones, but skip both if the stone has liquid inclusions, fractures or any filling, and skip them for vermeil settings. When in doubt, soap and water.
• Heat and light: ordinary aquamarine is stable, but avoid prolonged heat, and keep Maxixe-type stones out of strong sun entirely.
• Storage: separately from harder stones such as sapphire and diamond, which will scratch it.
• Chemicals: remove before chlorine, bleach and household cleaners, which harm settings more than stones.

Method by metal and gem is covered in how to clean jewelry at home.

Aquamarine Stone FAQ