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Topaz....Can any Topaz be SUPER SUPER expensive?

mellowyellowgirl

mellowyellowgirl

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May 17, 2014
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So I watched "Set It Up" with Hubby tonight.

Typical Netflix Romcom. Anyways the assistant was sent by his VERY WEALTHY and snobby boss to buy a flashy expensive engagement ring at what was presumably a high end store.

In that scene the salesperson offered him a Topaz as an engagement ring.

Do the writers not know their gems or is there some kind of mega expensive Topaz? Cuz that scene just screamed wrong to me unless there is crazy high end Topaz I do not know about.

If they didn't want diamonds I would have expected ruby, emerald, sapphire. But a topaz just didn't seem to sit right in that scene???
 
Was it imperial topaz?
 
TV shows are so ridiculous. They never get it right.
 
I think that some types can be quite rare and very expensive sure. imperial can be expensive but its down to coloration I believe. also @Barrett showed some that was purple (which I have never seen before in my life!!)

http://www.palagems.com/topaz-buyers-guide/

According to this, imperial can be megabucks.
In contrast, precious topaz (a.k.a. ‘imperial’ topaz) in rich orange colors fetches prices in excess of $1000/ct. for large (10 ct. +) sizes. The most valuable topaz is a rich pink or red color, and can reach $3500/ct. at retail. These are rare in sizes above 5 cts.
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Nah it was bright blue and the stone they used looked nothing like any kind of topaz to be honest!

The way the characters are you would expect at least a $50K ring! I was curious if any topaz came in that price!

Me I would have stuck with one of the big three if I was a writer instead of throwing in such a random stone! Probably just writers not knowing what they are on about! This is what I get for watching cheapie shows and movies :lol:
 
some completely untreated ( almost all topaz is treated ) are more expensive, but almost all topaz is very affordable.
 
I think electric blue topaz is a bit more expensive than others but still affordable
 
mellowyellowgirl said:
Nah it was bright blue and the stone they used looked nothing like any kind of topaz to be honest!

The way the characters are you would expect at least a $50K ring! I was curious if any topaz came in that price!

Me I would have stuck with one of the big three if I was a writer instead of throwing in such a random stone! Probably just writers not knowing what they are on about! This is what I get for watching cheapie shows and movies :lol:
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Oh...bright blue. then thats some side eye...lol

Bright blue is only expensive when a high enough brand name is attached to it. Otherwise, that would be a negative.
 
Thanks guys! They obviously know squat diddly! Now I'm wondering why they didn't just say ruby or something along those lines!

Since I started this thread and now have my answer let me recommend some trashy movies for you:

Set It Up

To All the Boys I've Loved Before (this is all the rage on Twitter lol)

Very entertaining in a teeny kind of way!
 
I love untreated topazes! These are old ones, photosSmartSelect_20180825-174334_Facebook.jpg SmartSelect_20180825-174354_Facebook.jpg SmartSelect_20180825-174427_Facebook.jpg SmartSelect_20180825-174444_Facebook.jpg taken at Mineralogy museum of Moscow. Blue, white and pink. I had better pink photos somewhere, they were amazing
 
Once I saw sherry topazes in a jeweler's showroom. Nearly bought them, they were so pretty.
And old Victorian jewelry with pink topazes...amazing!
 
I love topaz!! Imperial topaz can be quite expensive. That show sounds ridiculous though.
 
Arkteia said:
I love untreated topazes! These are old ones, photosSmartSelect_20180825-174334_Facebook.jpg SmartSelect_20180825-174354_Facebook.jpg SmartSelect_20180825-174427_Facebook.jpg SmartSelect_20180825-174444_Facebook.jpg taken at Mineralogy museum of Moscow. Blue, white and pink. I had better pink photos somewhere, they were amazing
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I love those pics!! Thanks for the eye candy!
 
chatoyancy said:
I love those pics!! Thanks for the eye candy!
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You are welcome! I just read that yellow topaz is considered the national stone of the state of Utah, and blue topaz - the stone of the state of Texas. London and mystic topazes have spoiled the game, it seems.
 
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I paid 4-figures for a pink Imperial Topaz that Jeff White in cutting for me.
Good job I was able to pay in instalments.
No pics yet.
DK :))
 
Tiffany had or may still has EB Topaz in their Legacy setting.
I saw it in their store and in one of their concessions inside a big department store in London some years ago.
Tiny stone no more than 7mm and cost a frigging fortune.
It was available with other stones such as Amethyst, pink and blue Sapphire etc...

DK :))
 
BTW, I found another photo of amazing pink topazes. This collection was donated to the museum by Faberge in mid-1920es (possibly one of the sons; much has been confiscated as well). At that time topazes were probably not treated in any way. I don't know the origin of the stones. SmartSelect_20180827-212448_Instagram.jpg
 
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Pic of my Imperial Topaz cut by JW, it is over 9ct!
2018-09-14-06-50-29.jpg
DK :love:
 
dk168 said:
Pic of my Imperial Topaz cut by JW, it is over 9ct!
2018-09-14-06-50-29.jpg
DK :love:
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Geez!!! You win! I was going to post my topaz collection, but I’ve changed my mind, lol!
When did you buy it? It’s drop dead gorgeous!
 
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dk168 said:
Thanks for the kind words. Please share pics of your collection.
JW posted about roughs of Imperial Topaz he picked up from Tucson over a year ago that caught my eyes.

I have a separate thread about this stone in CS:
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/this-could-be-my-imperial-topaz.242855/

DK :))
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Gorgeous! I checked out your other thread. When I saw your lovely gem, I thought you must have bought it a while ago. It’s nice to see that beautiful imperial topaz is still around. I don’t think my pics are very good. I may have to wait for sunshine. If Florence ever decides to leave for good, we should get sunny skies.
 
Here are some pics. The first is a sherry topaz, the second is an imperial. Both are from mastercut gems. The blue topaz is over 23 carats I think. It’s from ravenstein. All are untreated. The imperial topaz isn’t as saturated as some, but when the sun hits it, it is literally blinding. I close my eyes and see fluorescent yellow for several seconds. I’d like a bigger one as well. The first pic has a heliodore with it.

D597A9D7-30B9-4FE5-B79B-3A8D0760FF0C.jpeg C8997C43-77D0-4AAB-BDF5-E5F98E1E2214.jpeg A45C1695-8A50-4D5A-BFAD-A424756C2B57.jpeg AF6ECA0D-EFE0-4F6B-82C9-9DB8D06A899A.jpeg
dk168 said:
Thanks for the kind words. Please share pics of your collection.
JW posted about roughs of Imperial Topaz he picked up from Tucson over a year ago that caught my eyes.

I have a separate thread about this stone in CS:
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/this-could-be-my-imperial-topaz.242855/

DK :))
Click to expand...
 
Arcadian said:
I think that some types can be quite rare and very expensive sure. imperial can be expensive but its down to coloration I believe. also @Barrett showed some that was purple (which I have never seen before in my life!!)

http://www.palagems.com/topaz-buyers-guide/

According to this, imperial can be megabucks.
Click to expand...

Aww....Arcadian.... nice of you to remember me.:bigsmile::saint::razz:.

I spent a lot of time on this subject many years ago when I first started delving into the wonderful world of topaz. Like you, I too had no idea that they existed in colors such as purple. I came to understand just how unique and rare topaz can be. Some of the stones / colors are rarer than red beryl, as one example. Once you get past the "regulars", such as cognac, colorless, brown, tan, yellow, orange, and sherry, then you start to get into the rare varieties. Natural blue topaz are quite rare. When compared to irradiated blue topaz, natural blue topaz comprise less than .001%(or there abouts)of the total number of blue colored topaz out there. It's rare but not as rare some of the others. From my understanding, next on the list in terms of Rarity and pricing, is Pink. This is followed by purple / lavender.
Next one down the price list would be the bi- colors. These are much rarer than red Beryl would ever think of being. When I was buying up as much pink purple and bi colors as I could from Ouro Preto, I was lucky enough to be going through an American friend of mine, who also now happens to live there... and he is who first influenced and schooled me on the nuances of imperial topaz and their colors. That in turn led me to research and talk to others in the industry who could correct or backup what I learned already.
Anyways, I was made to understand that the bi color topaz are few and far between.... so much so that it could be one of the hardest gemstones to find at any given time.
All this especially rings true, and is more applicable when discussing cuttable facet rough. This is where the Rarity truly lies.
Although something like purple topaz, and to a lesser extent pink, are rare on the World Market and as a whole, they can still be had quite easily if you know where to look and who to talk to. To the guys down there, purple's not that big a deal, but when you get into big-color stones it's hands-down much more rare and expensive.

This brings me to the Reds. I don't know enough about the Reds to have a viable opinion on it. I have heard they are the rarest of them all. When they occur with little to no secondary orange, yellow, or brown, and are able to maintain as close to a pure red as possible, twhen they become the most expensive and hardest to find of all topaz.
My friend could never Source me any good Reds. I got a pinkish red stone one time, that he had sent me in a parcel, but that's closest I've ever come to owning a red. It's my understanding that all the red ones are immediately collected up and stowed away or purchased beforehand, so that very little to no material makes out of this particular Channel the Reds flow into. The mine owners down there in Brazil, from my understanding, try to control the market on reds and the prices. I remember John Dyer having said that he cut an Imperial Red topaz that cost as much as a house. You're talking about a topaz that cost probably a quarter of a million dollars. So on my list I usually include red is the rarest and most expensive of the colors.

There are a few exceptions I must make mention of, one being the uniqueness and Rarity of by color topaz that show pink and blue in the same Stone. Skip Simmons, the world famous pegmatologist/professor, show me some photos of when he traveled to Russia and one of the leading scientists over there showed him an imperial topaz Crystal that was either in a museum,or at the University, I can't remember which one as its been a number of years, that was a pink and blue bicolor. Both blue and pink were strong colored and not washed out.
The discussion came up because I brought with me my purple capped Imperial topaz that I had just recently purchased and was proudly showing off at the Pegmatite symposium/conference 6-7 years ago. What I originally thought was something as rare as they come, skip informed me that blue and pink bicolor is possibly the rarest. He then proceeded to show me the pictures and tell me the story of this world class blue pink topaz from Russia that originated at or near the original Imperial topaz mines.

There's one more footnote in the story though..... the green topaz....dum...dum...duuummm(scary low sounding organ music...lol)

Green topaz say what? Does that even exist?
Sure, there's such thing as green topaz....and its called "treated".
Do natural greens exist?
I'm sure there's been more examples that have come out since I've last looked into this, which is been years, but I do recall Jason Brim having a supposed natural green topaz gemstone.
I don't think whatever lab, or labs, he had look at it, wanted to say with 100% certainty it was natural but that's the way they were leaning towards. I also remember Rodney Moore finding a very light colored natural green topaz after he went on a trip to Namibia. It was extremely light and really not worth counting as a "green green" stone.....

Does anyone know if there has ever been any good green topaz found and nature? I suppose if some does exist it would be the rarest of all the colored topaz.
 
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