Growing your Money: Why Gems Can be a Wise Investment

Wondering where best to invest is a difficult proposition right now, but gemologist Ron LeBlanc has a suggestion to make which are always relegated to the exotic end of the investment portfolio, taking their place among the collections of stamps, rare coins, wine, art and antiquities. It’s a category driven by aficionados. And that makes gems tricky: woe to the poor fool who leaps in. Unlike traditional commodities, there is no little black book of value...or even an absolute determinative language of appraisal.

I could easily assemble fifty types of green emerald on a table and each would have a distinct tone, hints of blue or yellow, depth of colour and a differing dispersion of light.Gemstones are a long study, and only people with high degree of expertise or accompanied with a top advisor should enter the field.

I have sat with the best gem hunters in the world and we could all relate a recent story of being hoodwinked on a dusty street or back alley. ‘Verify or Die’ is a healthy motto when dealing with the complexities of establishing gemstone authenticity and value. Experience notwithstanding, mistakes are often the result of a treasure hunter’s lost battle with greed and the tantalizing prospect of finding a rarity for ‘chump change’, are troubled by the oscillating value of a gemstone and this uncertainty is manifested at the time of sale. 

What can you get for the stone tomorrow at 12.00 noon? Gemstones will never satisfy a rigid interpretation of currency, so the issue of liquidity is always of foremost concern, and as such, keeps the value proposition in flux. This can undermine the core aspiration of investment - which is, of course, a fluid and quick exit with profit. In traditional assets, like stocks and real estate, there is an unhealthy presumption (or consensual hallucination) that worth is inherent and value will inevitably rise.

But 'value' is so fickle. As we lived through the financial crisis that consumed much of 2008, all of '09, and has lingered through 2010, the value of things has been judged and found wanting.  Houses dropped 30% in many places, some stock markets dropped 75%, yachts were left to float away, horses released to the wilds, and V12 Jags were traded for machines with eight fewer cylinders. It was white-elephant time and assets that were previously exalted were left to the fear and consequent uncertainty of shifting value. Ironically, in my own profession, as a miner and gemologist, I found a renewed interest in coloured stones.

I suddenly became lighter and more substantial than stock paper, far rarer than a condominium, didn’t eat like a horse or guzzle gas like a luxury sedan... and I could carry it in my pocket. That 5-carat pink sapphire went up in price as all rare stones do irrespective (and respective) of financial environments.

There is a reason that deposed emperors have taken their diamonds with them, or peripatetic traders have established a considerable niche in the industry, or explorers brought back jade from the east: their investment is portable. As Robert Genis said in the Gem Forecaster, an ounce of ruby from Burma can be worth 60 million and an ounce of 150 million. 

Try taking your investment in potash, iron ore or even gold in your pocket on a dash through the airport. So, should you invest in stones? I say yes, but the process must be coupled with a stringent discipline and high criteria. For every good gem there are a thousand mediocre gems; for every great gem there are literally millions that do not make the grade. Exceptional gems are very rare indeed. You must use a professional. Additionally, as wearable luxury, you should love the look of the stone, it’s colour, it’s shininess, it’s aesthetic.

To own such a rare thing of animating beauty is a not insignificant bonus. Stones are formed under unimaginable heat and pressure...and when nourished through a chemical alchemy they grow like crystalline flowers. There is a credible argument that fine stones are beyond value.

They are surely worthy of their reputation as the most concentrated form of wealth known to man.And if the stone is rare enough today, you can sell it tomorrow at 12.00 noon ...and for a profit.','Growing your money: why gems can be a wise investment'