Cartagena has more emerald stores per block than almost anywhere on earth. Most travelers buy in one of them on the second or third day, after walking past twenty. This note is about what to look at during that walk.
Buy the stone, not the story
Every store in the walled city will tell you its emeralds come from Muzo. Some of them are telling the truth. The problem is that origin cannot be seen, and almost never proven, once the stone is cut and set. A seller who states the mine with total confidence and no document is telling you a story.
What can be verified is different and more useful: the species, the weight, the metal, and the treatment. Those four things belong in writing.
The four questions worth asking
- Is the stone natural or lab-created? Both are legitimate to sell. They are not remotely the same price. The answer should be in the certificate, not only in conversation.
- What treatment does it have? Nearly every emerald in the world is oiled. That is normal and accepted. What is not normal is a seller who avoids the question.
- What is the carat weight of the emerald, separately from the piece? In a setting with several stones, the total weight and the weight of the main stone are different numbers.
- What metal, and what purity? 18-karat gold and 14-karat gold are different things, and so are their prices.
The document is the purchase
A piece should leave the store with a written certificate that names the species, the weight, the metal and the treatment, and that commits whoever signs it. If it does not, what you own is a pretty object with no history. That matters the day you insure it, resell it, or pass it on.
On price and haggling
Bargaining is expected in Cartagena and there is nothing wrong with it. But a discount of sixty percent off an asking price does not mean you found a bargain; it means the asking price was invented. A store with a real workshop has a real floor below which it cannot go, and it will tell you so.
Take your time
The single most common regret we hear is from people who bought in fifteen minutes on their last afternoon. Emeralds vary enormously in color and clarity, and the differences become visible only after you have seen a few side by side, in daylight, out of the display case.
Ask to see the stones outside the vitrine. Ask to see them near a window. Any serious store will say yes.
Would you rather settle it in person, with the stones in front of you? We are in the Edificio Pombo, open every day from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm.
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