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104 Duval Street | Key West, FL
Photo of a female with an emerald ring and bracelet holding an emeralds international shopping bag.

How To Buy An Emerald

The beauty of purchasing an emerald lies in the diversity and variety of nuances of color, clarity, fire/brilliance and sizes available to select. Choose clarity and fire/brilliance over color or conversely, the darker green, whichever pleases you more.

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Heart shaped ruby with reflection

Ruby Romance

The Latin word ruber, meaning red, is where ruby gets its name from and in Sanskrit it’s known as “ratnaraj”, meaning “king of stones”. Treasured for associating attributes such as health, wisdom, beauty, romance and success in love, as well as for holding the power of life in some early cultures due to the redness equated with human blood, they have captivated humans and influenced cultures and dynasties over the ages.

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A variety of conch pearl colors, shapes and sizes in a line.

Manuel’s First Conch Pearl Encounter

“One successful fishing day I traded 8 lobster with a local fisherman named Regino Castillo, for a fine pink pearl that later was made into a beautiful gold pendant with emerald and diamond accents. Although I felt that I might be getting the short end of the deal since I knew nothing of the history of conch pearl jewelry at the time or what I was looking at, that same pendant sold for over $6000.00 in the 1980’s…”

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Secrets of the Spanish Galleons

Sometime within the first year after finding the scattered remains of the two galleons, Mel came into my shop on Duval Street, and without the customary greetings said in a loud and concerned voice, “I have lots of green stones coming up off the Atocha and I don’t know what they are!” I reassured him that I would come over to his offices and make the determination of the nature of his ‘green stones’.

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custom wedding bands for jay & michael

Custom Wedding Bands for Jay & Michael

The making of emerald and diamond custom wedding bands for Jay & Michael. A very sentimental & touching project. For this project we took old diamonds and gold from Michael’s parents wedding rings and joined them with new emeralds and gold to produce a beautiful matching set of two tone gold wedding bands.

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