I initially became excited about an advertisement I saw on Ebay about an emerald hourd that had been pulled from a mine in Columbia.  The price was great at the time I thought. Being an inexperienced stone buyer and simply wanting to experience the fun of geology, I placed the winning bid for a bag of “Emeralds”

When I got the package in the mail I was excited only because I thought what I had were genuine emeralds that I ccould break down and place in jewlelry,maybe being able to sell on Ebay at a later time….

… a quick trip to the local jewelry store and I find out after an emabarassing comparison, that what I had was not “Emerald” quality at all.  I did learn that an Emerald is just a fancy name for a translucent six sided green stone that forms a crystal in a matrix.  This green stone is in fact a Beryl stone as almost all emeralds actually are. 

I wasn’t all too disapointed though.  As I took this stone back to my others armed with a little bit more information, I noticed this stone and the others and was actually happy to pull away some specimens like this one that have great geology to them.  One can count the six sides to the stone and notice the ridges that still make this an interesting piece of Earth.    The green color peaks my interest when I see it and know that it is still just a plain rock, yet not all rocks are colored better than grey in my area so it is great to see nature take a creative stance and form such “gems” for our eyes to enjoy.