A natural tourmaline of 1.55 carats, about 1.70 ratti, at Rs. 3,900 – roughly Rs. 2,516 per carat. Its colour is recorded as green.

Before the price: what the photograph is

The picture above is a catalogue photograph used across all six tourmaline listings on this site. We compared the six image files directly, cropped to the stone and drawn at their true proportions, and they are one photograph. It is not a picture of this individual stone.

So nothing below describes how this particular stone looks, because we cannot honestly tell you that. Message us on WhatsApp and we will send photographs and a video of the actual stone before you decide.

How tourmaline is priced

Tourmaline is not one gem but a family of related minerals, and the price range inside that family is enormous. At the top, Paraiba tourmaline – a copper-bearing variety with an electric blue-green glow – sells for thousands of dollars a carat. At the bottom, common black tourmaline is sold by the kilo for carving.

Ordinary green and pink tourmaline, which is what most of the market is, sits far down that scale. What moves the price is colour first: how saturated it is, and whether it is a desirable hue rather than a muddy one. Then size, then how clean the stone is, then the cut.

This stone is the cheaper per carat of the two priced tourmalines we hold: Rs. 2,516 per carat against Rs. 5,357 for the other. We are not going to tell you the dearer one is twice as good looking, because the shared photograph gives us no basis for saying so. Ask us what separates them.

What is recorded for this stone

Its colour is recorded as green. Its shape, cut, clarity and dimensions are not recorded, and there is no laboratory report. The treatment has not been tested.

Treatment

Tourmaline is sometimes heated or irradiated to adjust its colour, which is the honest general position for the material: heating can lighten an over-dark green, and irradiation can deepen a pale pink. Both are stable. Neither has been tested for on this stone, so treat the trade norm as the expectation rather than a finding.

Hard enough, and no cleavage to worry about

Tourmaline sits at 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale – harder than the quartz in ordinary household dust, which is what dulls softer stones over time.

More usefully, it has no troublesome cleavage. That is worth saying plainly, because several popular stones do: topaz and tanzanite both split cleanly along a plane if they are knocked the wrong way, whatever their hardness. Tourmaline does not. It is one of the genuinely practical coloured stones for a ring worn every day.

It does dislike sudden heat, so tell a jeweller to set it last and keep a torch away from it, and skip the ultrasonic cleaner if the stone has visible inclusions. Warm water, mild soap and a soft brush otherwise.

The odd thing about tourmaline

Warm a tourmaline, or rub it, and it develops a static electric charge at its ends – it is both pyroelectric and piezoelectric. Dutch traders in the eighteenth century used the stones to pull ash out of their pipes and called them aschentrekker, ash-drawers. In practice it means a tourmaline in a ring attracts dust and needs wiping more often than you would expect. Harmless, and a genuine way to tell the family apart from glass.

Ordering

One stone, sold once. Message us on WhatsApp for photographs of the actual stone, and we deliver across Pakistan.

This particular stone

This listing is one natural tourmaline with a weight of 1.55 Carat. Its price is Rs. 3,900 — roughly Rs. 2,516 for each carat. Treatment: treatment not tested. Quote reference GS-000437 when you message us about it. The photographs show this exact stone, so what arrives at your door is the piece you chose on screen.

Under two carats, a stone like this sits neatly in a slim ring, a stud or a delicate pendant and does not snag on sleeves. It is also where many first-time buyers begin when a stone is recommended for astrological reasons, because the total cost stays modest.

On the Mohs scale tourmaline rates 7 to 7.5. It handles daily wear, but a hard knock can still nick an exposed corner, so a protective setting is a sensible choice. Clean it with warm soapy water and a soft brush, and keep it away from abrasive cleaners and high heat.

Whoever you buy tourmaline from, make sure of three things: the stone is natural rather than lab-grown, glass or glass-filled; any treatment is stated in writing; and the weight quoted is the weight of the finished stone. We check every tourmaline for those three points before it is listed, a certificate is available on request, and because you pay on delivery you can look at the stone — or have it tested — before any money changes hands.

We sell natural stones only and inspect each one before it is listed. Treatment for this stone: Treatment not tested. Certificate available on request. As general background (not a statement about this stone): Tourmaline is sometimes heated or irradiated to adjust colour. Ask us on WhatsApp and we will tell you what we know about this exact stone; independent lab testing is available on request.

A certificate of authenticity is available on request for this stone, and independent laboratory testing can be arranged. Because you pay on delivery, you can also take the stone to a lab of your choice within the 7-day return window. Read more on our authenticity page.