Vol. 36 No. 12. June 16
Marketing Made Simple
It's 'Pink Emerald' Now
Fairfield, Iowa – Dr. Christopher W. Hartnett has spent the past four years buying up all the pink beryl, or morganite he could find. He bought at shows. He bought from dealers. He bought from collectors. He bought every piece he could find. He was down to the wire in February—when other dealers in Tucson got wind of his plan-and bought his final 12,000 carats in a two-hour period.
But he feels it was worth it. Now, tens of thousands of carats later, Hartnett, President of the USA Gems, believes he will bestow on pink beryl, or morganite the appreciation it deserves—as Pink Emerald.
"There are too many 'ites.' 'Ites' are for the mineral world, not the gem world," said Hartnett. "And the reality is, green emerald is not rare; and diamond is anything but rare-everyone in the world has one, regardless of their income level. But morganite is rare. Every gem dealer has one tucked away because they've always known it's an important stone.
"We want to raise the stone to the price level it deserves."
Pink Emerald prices will start at $450 per carat for some of the lighter colors, and range to a high of $10,000 per carat for at least one stone—a 69-carat, dark-colored gem from Madagascar.
"I can see morganites easily being $10,000 to $30,000 per carat in the very near future," Hartnett said. "We're making it more salable for the jeweler and at the same time making money."
Hartnett is following a lead taken in 1990 by Ray Zajicek, President of Equatorian Imports, Dallas. Zajicek became partner in a Utah mine earlier that year and marketed red beryl, or bixbite, as red emerald.
Red emerald and Pink Emerald are both beryllium aluminum silicates colored by manganese plus 3 and chromium, among other things.
Hartnett is no longer interested in buying up gems for his inventory; there have been too many reports of synthetics from Australia showing up in parcels of natural gems, he said, and he has already confirmed that his entire inventory is natural. Now he's focusing on selling.
Pinkerton, or Pinky, the pig will handle that, Hartnett hopes. The 5,325-carat morganite pig was carved by Manfred Wild of Idar-Oberstein, Germany, in August 1991. Pinky is believed to be the largest known morganite, carved or faceted. Pinky is also for sale—at $1.5 million.
Harnett's inventory, marketed by his company, USA Gems, is calibrated and free-form, starting at a quarter-carat; most stones are 8 carats. Color saturation is best, he said, between 8 and 12 carats.
Think Pink!