Value of Turquoise
Turquoise is a very difficult stone to put a set value on it. There are no color charts and clarity scales to work from like other stones. The price for turquoise is probably formed from supply and demand. Over the last several hundred years’ turquoise has seen highs and lows in its value. George F.Kunz, the geologist for the Tiffany Co, declared turquoise as a gem stone about 1892. This declaration gave turquoise a gem status and turquoise soared in value. The price for American turquoise at that time was a low of $8.00 to a high of $20.00 a ct. That is a price that we still are having trouble reaching even today over 100 years later. Tiffany was the primarily the sole end user of American mined turquoise at that time and made a lot of jewelry with it. Tiffany made turquoise a very important part of fashion and created a huge demand for turquoise.
Today we have world wide demand for turquoise and really a very small amount being mined for this world wide demand. China is the world’s largest miner and supplier of turquoise to the world today. Very little turquoise is mined from America today for this demand. There are still old stashes of turquoise from the many mines from around America. Some of the old American mines still produce on a very limited level. I own several of these old mines as do a few friends and fellow miners.
As for value of Turquoise----First off if you were to grade turquoise from just one mine and put a value on the different grades that would not be too difficult. The way this is done is of course the darker blue or green the stone is the greater the value. Also individual stones will have a vibrancy of color and matrix that will add value. Then we have the different matrix patterns and spider webbing to add value. The most valuable is the very tight and consistent webbing patterns against a very vibrant blue or green color.
Webbing will run several colors the most common is probably black, then we have golden colors and probably the rarest webbing color is red. The more intense the black or red webbing color of course the more the value.
Then we have the many mines that Turquoise came from to contend with. The smaller the mine or the more limited the turquoise production from a certain mine does come into the formula for value. But probably it is the more popular an old shut down mine is that determines the value. The most valuable old mine today is the Landers pocket or mine. This was very high grade and very limited production. Estimates are that this mine only produced less then 200 lbs. So we have high grade with limited production. I would hate to rate the next most valuable mine with a stone of comparable grade to other mines.
But some mines that are in the most popular and valuable to collect are Lone Mountain, Bisbee, Cerrillos, Red Mountain, Candelaria , number 8, Stennich, and many more. I would say that the lone Mountain mine and Bisbee are the two top value mines behind Landers.Today we also have some every popular and rare colors that have come into higher value. These are the intense lime greens from Carico Lake and Orville Jack as well as the older Stennich. Stennich is very hard to find today.
Copyright 2010 @ James Saunders
