What You Need to Know about the Beryl Gemstone Family

The Beryl Family of gemstones includes the popular Emerald (green Beryl) and the popular Aquamarine (light blue) semi-precious gems but the Beryl also comes in several other colors like red, gold-yellow, yellow, yellow-green, pink and even in a beautiful colorless version.  When you find Beryl in the pink color it is referred to as a Pink Beryl or Morganite and when you find it in the gold-yellow color it is referred to as a Golden Beryl or Heliodor for the greenish-yellow shades.

As you can imagine, the gemstones in the Beryl family are highly prized and beautiful stones. Emeralds have been prized for hundreds of years and have graced jewelry pieces from a King's or Queen's crown down to a lovely every day emerald ring or earring.  Pictured here is a Spanish emerald and gold pendant on display at the Victoria and Albert museum.

The gemstone comes in at 7.5 to 8 on the Mohs hardness scale so it is a semi-hard stone. With that said it is highly sensitive to pressure, extreme heat, extreme cold, water submersion and household chemicals. If your Beryl jewelry needs a light cleaning we recommend just wiping it down with a slightly dampened cotton cloth. If it needs a more heavy duty cleaning, it is best left ot a professional jeweler.

When it comes to storing your highly prized Beryl jewelry you need to place them in a nicely lined and cushioned jewelry box.  You never want to pile additional jewelry pieces on one another. Rings should be stored in ring rolls, necklaces and bracelets either hung or laid flat. It is best to keep your jewelry box closed so that direct sunlight and moisture doesn't get in to ruin your expensive jewelry pieces.

by Jasmine Yesak, Contributing Editor at ChasingTreasure.com, online retailer of quality jewelry boxes, jewelry organizers and watch boxes. Jasmine is a Jewelry Enthusiast and Organization Consultant, she writes about Jewelry Care and Jewelry Storage Tips.