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The name, Aquamarine, comes from a Latin word for seawater. With its light greenish blue hue, one can easily see why it lives up to its name. Occasionally, Aquamarine is found in large enough pieces to yield finished gemstones in the 1000-plus carat range. Because of its color and name, Aquamarine, a form of the mineral Beryl, it has always been a favorite of seafaring folk. It was believed to ensure sage and prosperous voyages upon the sea, and to guard against storms. There are many qualities attributed to Aquamarine in folklore circles. It was thought to be the symbol of happiness and everlasting youth, to bring victory in battle and in legal disputes, and to re-awaken love in long-married couples. Aquamarine's color was also thought to be symbolic of the moon. When worn as an amulet, it was reputed to bring relief of pain and to make the wearer friendlier, quicken the intellect, and cure laziness.

From lightest sky-blue to the deep blue of the sea – aquamarines show all these shades of an exceptionally beautiful range of usually light blues. It is a truly fascinating stone. Women all over the world covet it because of its fine blue color, which suits almost any complexion or eye-color to perfection, and creative gemstone artists get their inspiration for new cuts more often from aquamarines than from other stones.

Its light blue arises feelings such as sympathy, trust, harmony or friendship. These are good feelings, which involve a partner or companion, and prove their vale in long-lasting relationships. Aquamarine blue is a divine and eternal color, since it is, after all, the color of the skies. Aquamarine blue, however, is also the color of water with its life-giving properties. And in fact aquamarine seems to have managed to embody the light blue of the seas. This is not surprising, for according to legend it has its origin in the treasure chest of the legendary mermaids, and has for ages been reputed to be a lucky stone for sailors. Its name has been derived from the Latin terms "aqua” meaning water, and "mare” or sea. Allegedly its powers develop best if the stone is immersed in sun-drenched water. However, it seems a wiser course to carry it, because according to ancient traditions, carrying an aquamarine is supposed to guarantee a happy marriage and to make its owner happy and rich at that – the ideal gemstone, not only for lovers and married couples.

Aquamarine is one of our most popular and famous gemstones and is characterized by many excellent features. It is almost as popular as the classical stones Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald. It is related to Emerald, which just like Aquamarine belongs to the gemstone family of Beryl. However, the color is more evenly distributed throughout the stone in Aquamarines compared to Emeralds. More frequent in occurrence than its famous green brother, Aquamarine is usually almost free of inclusions. It possesses a good hardness (7 _ to 7 _ on the Moh’s’ scale), and a breathtaking brilliance. Its good hardness makes it quite robust and protects it generally from getting scratched. Iron is the substance responsible for the color in Aquamarine, and the shades of blue displayed range from almost colorless pale blue through to bright sea blue. The more intense the color of an Aquamarine, the higher its value. Some Aquamarines show a slightly greenish hue – that is also considered typical. But a really pure and clear blue is still cherished as typical Aquamarine color, as it best brings out the immaculate transparency and high brilliance of this gemstone.

The light blue of this fine Beryl finds more and more friends. The different shades of Aquamarine are distinguished by their own promising names: "Santa Maria” is the name for the rare, intensely deep blue Aquamarines found in the Santa Maria de Itabira mine in Brazil, and they are bound to cause excitement among gemstone lovers in general. Similar colors are found in some of the sparse Aquamarine gemstone mines in Africa, especially in Mozambique. In order to better distinguish them, these Aquamarines are denoted as "Santa Maria Africana”. Not quite as deeply blue are "Espirito Santo” Aquamarines from the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo. Another beautiful color has in fact been named in honor of a Brazilian beauty queen from 1954, and has become famous as "Martha Rocha”.

The names of the colors already point out the importance of Brazil as the main country where Aquamarines are found. Most of the rough crystals on the world market come from the gemstone mines of this huge South American country. From time to time, then, large Aquamarine crystals of immaculate transparency and splendid color are found here, a rare occurrence indeed where these gemstones are concerned. Now and then even sensationally large crystals are found, such as, e.g., in 1910 at Maraimba/ Minas Gerais, where a 110.5 kg crystal was mined. Or there is the "Dom Pedro” weighing 26 kg, which was cut in 1992 by Idar-Oberstein gemstone artist Bernd Munsteiner, thus achieving the title of largest ever cut Aquamarine. Nevertheless, Aquamarines are also found in other countries, such as, for example, Nigeria, Madagascar, Mozambique, Afghanistan or Pakistan.

There is hardly another gemstone, which is equally often used for modern jewelry design in such versatile variety. Clear and transparent in classical steps cut, or as modern fancy cut: Aquamarine is always fascinating and beautiful. Even uncut or with many inclusions, which designers often opt to include on purpose when developing their cuts, the stone is ideal for realizing imaginative creations. Designers have named it their favorite stone. Again and again they surprise everybody with new and modern cuts, which they seem to prefer to craft in Aquamarine. These creative designer cuts have no doubt contributed to its high popularity. Aquamarine’s light color makes it easy to discern inclusions within. Therefore Aquamarines should be as transparent as possible. But sometimes the design of the cuts adds special attractiveness to a stone by including these imperfections to create special effects. Aquamarine’s light color allows for a special creative freedom for designers to bring out the character and brilliance of a stone by integrating fine fissures and traces, rounded shapes as well as edges. Thus each Aquamarine becomes a unique original, which no woman will be able to resist.