Looking to buy the perfect jewelry, you’ll often come across the names of gemstones such as sapphires and diamonds thrown around as contenders. However, since they are often heavily seen as alluring and beautiful, it can be hard to figure out which stone is more expensive.

Both gemstones are priced according to their hue, clarity, weight, luster, and unique traits. However, diamonds are more expensive than sapphires at the starting prices of $2000 and $450 per carat. However, the sapphire’s color versatility and durability make it a great cheaper alternative.

Just itching to find out whether sapphires are more expensive than diamonds? Well then, just read along to find out!

Inside The World Of Gemstone Pricing

For most buying the perfect gemstone is quite actually difficult, especially when it comes to finding stones whose pricing is reasonable and proportionate to their worth. Regarding sapphires and diamonds, this is quite common, so it’s best to follow along with this helpful guide on their true prices!

How Much Should I Buy A Sapphire For

Now, this is a question that is often asked by both the common consumer and trained gemologist alike, and it’s not necessarily a cut-and-dry manner. Sapphires are usually priced according to several factors, which are especially important if this makes a sapphire exceptional compared to other stones.

Hue is one of the biggest determinants of a sapphire’s price. The typical vivid blue, which you probably recognize, is natural sapphires’ most commonly occurring color. The sapphires that attract the higher prices tend to be rarer colors, such as the exquisite peachy orange-colored Padparadscha.

Now, just because sapphire is a certain color does not mean that it will be priced higher than others in the case that the color is the product of artificial means. This is done in labs, usually through heat treatment to remove color and as well as through dying processes to enhance color.

Sapphires also derive value from their weight, which is measured in carats that are about 0.20 grams each. Obviously, this weight is of the stone as a final cut product that should amplify the stones’ sparkle and contain the most saturation of the raw stone’s color zones.

Unique traits also heavily cause the surge in the price of a sapphire. These include asterisms which are star-like areas of high shine concentration and having two or more colors present. Another unusual characteristic is a stone possessing hues that shift in color depending on the lighting cast onto it.

Luster, otherwise known as brilliance, also affects a sapphire’s beauty, hence its price. Luster, in simple terms, refers to the shine of a stone. This can be improved through its faceting as well as the absence of any inclusions that could impede the path of light rays within the stone.

In addition, the price of sapphire can also be determined by the location in which it was mined. This is especially the truth when it comes to mines in regions and countries such as Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Myanmar, and India, which are renowned for their excellent findings and lengthy histories.

Sapphires are typically cheaper per carat in comparison to diamonds. Most sapphires cost around $450 to $1600 per carat, whereas diamonds are much more expensive, with most prices starting at around $2000 per carat and can go up to as much as $20 000!

What Is The Actual Worth of Diamonds?

Much like their precious gem counterparts’ sapphires, diamonds are also judged along the same metrics, such as weight, hue, clarity, luster, and any unique traits that would make them exceptional. However, diamonds do tend to attract much higher prices than sapphires for multiple reasons.

Diamonds are considered to be the top-tier gemstone by pop culture, especially when it comes to wedding rings. However, this allure can’t be attributed to the stone’s beauty. Rather, diamonds, as the result of an intense marketing campaign by De Beers, have artificially inflated their value.

However, when it comes to more practical applications, the diamond has the upper hand compared to sapphire. Its durability as the hardest stone on the Mohs Hardness Scale and its ability to be finely cut makes it useful in everything from drill bits to engraving to audio equipment.

If you’re considering making a swap from diamonds, then sapphires are an excellent and more affordable alternative. Not only do sapphires come in the same vast array of colors as diamonds, but they can also occur in clear forms if you’re trying to emulate the look of a diamond.

Now, one bone of contention for this swap might be the hardness and durability of the stone. In all actuality, the sapphire, part of the Corundum family, clocks in at about a 9 out of 10 on the Mohs Hardness Scale. But the difference from the diamonds’ hardness of 10 is quite negligible.

Neat Facts About Sapphires

Many civilizations value Sapphires for their beauty as well as their supposed medicinal, spiritual, and protective qualities. Ancient Greeks used to wear Sapphires to honor the Gods Apollo and Zeus, and both European clergymen in the Middle Ages and Persians would wear them to ward off injury and evil.

The largest cut sapphire is the ‘Star of Adam’ sapphire found in 2016 in Sri Lanka. This magnificent monolith of a stone valued around the neighborhood of $300 million comes in at a staggering 1404.49 carats, which is 280 grams!

Sapphires are the product of centuries of continuous pressure under the Earth’s surface. Occurring as Corundum, they are a crystallized form of aluminum oxide. Regarding classification, rubies and sapphires are the same gemstones, both Corundum; it’s just that all red sapphires are called rubies!

When it comes to royal bling, the sapphire is a fan favorite! For millennia these stones have been adorned by royals. However, it seems they receive the most love from English royalty as both Kate Middleton and Lady Diana boasted many Sapphire jewelry pieces, creating a high demand for sapphires.

Conclusion

After reading all of this, you’ve probably come to find that sapphires aren’t, in fact, more expensive than diamonds when it comes to price per carat. However, their splendor and durability are comparable to diamonds, making them worthy opponents when it comes to finding the perfect jewelry!

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