Yahoo Finance 18 Most Expensive Gemstones in the World
Rare and precious items have always had a grip on the imagination of human beings. Since ancient times, beautiful, rare minerals like jade and gold have been revered, used in everything from jewelry for the wealthy to tombs for emperors. This fascination continues today.
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To a large degree, "value" is assigned to an object based on the long-standing economic principle of supply and demand. Namely, as demand increases and supply decreases, the price of an item will go up, and vice versa. However, sometimes other factors play a role.
For example, the diamond industry has promulgated the idea that diamonds are extremely rare and valuable gems and that every engagement ring should have a diamond. The reality is that diamonds are somewhat common. The DeBeers Corporation has played a major role in stockpiling diamonds and controlling their release to keep prices high, but this may change in the future if supply and demand catch up to the company's marketing campaign.
Rare and valuable, of course, are relative terms as well. Although all items on this list are considered expensive, the price ranges of these substances vary considerably. For example, platinum is prized for its applications in jewelry, electronics, medicine, and more. As of this writing, it's valued around $33 per gram. However, it's not even in the same galaxy as Antimatter, the most expensive item on the list.
If you're thinking of shelling out any of your hard-earned dollars for some of these legal and expensive substances, realize that their prices can fluctuate, sometimes dramatically. Before you invest, research which of these luxury items is most likely to retain its value.
18. Platinum
Cost: $33.02 per gram
Platinum is a beautiful precious metal that is in a similar category as gold and silver. All three of these metals are frequently traded in the global markets, and all three are often used for beautiful objects like jewelry. Platinum is actually 30 times rarer than gold and far more durable.
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17. Palladium
Cost: $46.52 per gram
This shiny white metal is more valuable than gold. Demand has been skyrocketing recently, with the price more than doubling since early 2019. Like rhodium, palladium's major use is in catalytic converters. South Africa and Russia produce the majority of the world's palladium.
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16. Gold
Cost: $62.26 per gram
Gold has been valuable since time immemorial because it is beautiful and has always been seen as a store of wealth. Among other characteristics, gold also possesses the unusual combination of being both extremely malleable and yet nearly indestructible.
15. Iridium
Cost: $162.26 per gram
Iridium is a hard, silvery metal that is one of the rarest in the world. It's also extremely corrosion resistant. Iridium is mainly used as a hardening agent for platinum.
14. Rhodium
Cost: $228.27 per gram
Rhodium is a precious metal that can have a volatile price, just like gold or silver. However, rhodium's primary use is not for jewelry but rather for catalytic converters. As global emission standards for vehicles tighten, rhodium becomes more in demand. In 2019 alone, the price of rhodium jumped 151%, according to CNBC.
13. Plutonium
Cost: $4,000-$11,000 per gram
The devastating power of nuclear weapons, such as those used on Japan in World War II, probably makes plutonium more well-known than it otherwise might be. However, it is also used as a fuel for nuclear reactors. No matter what its use, this radioactive element is hard to come by and quite expensive.
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12. Taaffeite
Cost: $12,500 per gram
Taaffeite is a very rare, light violet gemstone, far more rare than a diamond. The gem is named after its discoverer, Austrian geologist Richard Taaffe, who found the first stone in 1945. Taaffeite has thus far only been unearthed in Tanzania and Sri Lanka.
11. Benitoite
Cost: $8,000-21,000 per gram and up
Benitoite is a rare gem that looks something like a sapphire. However, it has a much higher refractive index than sapphires or even diamonds, making it sparkle brightly. Benitoite is almost exclusively found in California's San Benito County, when it is found at all.
10. Tritium
Cost: $30,000 per gram
Tritium is the sole radioactive isotope of hydrogen. It is most commonly found in the form of water. Even though it's expensive, tritium is still used in a wide range of consumer products, as it can energize light-producing phosphors in items such as watch dials, gun sights and exit signs.
9. Red Beryl
Cost: $50,000 per gram
Red beryl is an extremely rare gemstone. For every 150,000 diamonds mined, only one red beryl is found. A two-carat red beryl is considered to be as rare a find as a 40-carat diamond. The rare stone is only found in the U.S.
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8. Grandidierite
Cost: $100,000 per gram or more
Grandidierite is a gemstone that is a close cousin to serendibite, and both are extremely valuable. Grandidierite is named after its discoverer, Alfred Grandidier, who found the blue, green and white stone in Sri Lanka. At the time of the initial discovery, the grandidierite was thought to be serendibite, but it was determined to be its own new gemstone upon further examination.
7. Diamond
Cost: $25,000 to $150,000 or more per gram
As mentioned above, diamonds are priced at a level above their natural supply and demand levels, as they are not nearly as uncommon as many of the stones on this list. A pure, 1-carat diamond can easily fetch a price in the six digits per gram. Prices can vary dramatically based on color, cut and other factors.
6. Painite
Cost: $300,000 per gram
Never heard of painite? You're not alone. As of 2001, there were only three painite crystals known to exist. More discoveries of the deep red gem have occurred since then, but rarely in sizes large enough to facet. Painite thus far has only been found in Myanmar.
5. Red Diamonds
Cost: $5 million per gram
Red diamonds are the rarest version of colored diamonds in the world, with no specimens at all being presented to the Gemological Institute of America for grading from 1957 to 1987, an impressive 30-year span. Most of the world's true red diamonds have been produced by Western Australia's Argyle mine, which is slated for closure in 2020, perhaps making red diamonds even more rare.
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4. Serendibite
Cost: $100,000 per gram
Serendibite is known as a borosilicate mineral, and it is only found in 20 locales around the world. Only two areas are said to produce "quality" serendibite, namely Mogok in northern Myanmar, and Ratnapura in Sri Lanka.
3. Californium 252
Cost: $27 million per gram
Californium is a rare element that is man-made and not found in nature. As the name suggests, the element was first created in the University of California's Radiation Lab in Berkeley. Thanks to its radioactive properties, CF-252 is used in a range of applications, from scanners and reactor startup rods to Prompt Gamma Neutron Activation Analysis, or PGNAA.
2. Endohedral Fullerenes
Cost: $167 million per gram
Endohedral fullerenes are complex chemical structures that are made of carbon atoms with a nitrogen atom inside. They have the ability to encapsulate other atoms within their cage-like design. They are very difficult to synthesize, which contributes to their astronomical price.
1. Antimatter
Cost: $62.5 trillion per gram
Antimatter is considered to be the most expensive substance on Earth because it requires an incredible amount of energy to generate. According to CERN, it requires several hundred million pounds just to create one-billionth of a gram of antimatter. It also happens to be extremely dangerous, as it annihilates any matter that it may come into contact with in a huge explosion, the size of which is determined by Einstein's famous E=mc² equation.
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