A never-ending story: recheck service and report validity check on myssef.ch for emeralds

by Dr. M.S. Krzemnicki, first published in Facette 27 (June 2021)

Figure 1: This emerald was submitted six times to SSEF. Photo: M.S. Krzemnicki, SSEF

Imagine life as an emerald. Just born in the rocks and growing, you get joggled and bruised by mother nature and later by the mining process. So, already in your young age you carry quite some scars and fractures, which reduce your true beauty considerably and may not make it so easy to find a good mate (emerald buyer).

But there is hope, some drops of oil may help, or even immersion in a bath of artificial resin?
and wow, what a change is possible…

Many emeralds are submitted more than once to SSEF. The reason is not only a recut of the stone, but mostly due to the fact that fissures in emeralds are cleaned or filled again and again. This is no problem, as long as at each stage a new report is made to reflect the current situation of the stone. Not to do so, and especially selling an emerald without correct disclosure of the latest fissure filling status is unethical.

To avoid any later trouble, we thus suggest our clients to use our recheck service (offered at a reduced fee) before making important buying decisions when a stone is offered to you with an older SSEF report.

At this point we also would like to remind our clients, that a statement about fissure filling on a SSEF report always reflects the time of testing at SSEF. This is specifically mentioned in the comments section of our report. Please also check carefully the photo on our report and compare it with the stone offered with the report. If the stone looks considerably better and shows distinctly less fissures, then there is a good option that the stone is not anymore in the same situation as it was when tested at SSEF. And finally, please always check your report’s validity on our www. myssef.ch website, to determine if the report presented to you is valid and correct.


Want to learn more about emeralds?

Sign up for our free online course: Introduction to emeralds