Then, there is my Mom's souvenir from a long ago trip to Columbia with my Dad.  She gave it to my after I helped take care of her and Dad after her knee surgery, years before.  It's a 1ct Columbian emerald, EC of course,  It has a little garden in it that I love.
 

and just for grins, here's a shot of the whole green team

Thank you for sharing.  How special to have the emerald from your parents' trip!!!!

Beautiful greens! 

That is a great family tradition.  My grandmother gave away all of her best pieces while alive because she wanted to enjoy seeing us all wear them.  I am hoping I will have the strength of characters to part with mine in the same way.  I guess having all boys is good, as it means I get to hold on a bit longer...

Oh, these are lovely! I especially like the colour of the emerald your father gave to your mother.

Now, did you say 2ct marquise solitaire? Heck, I'd love to see that one!

Jen

Hummm... you call that a solitaire?

Lovely solitaire then. And nice colour sapphires, too.

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Ooooh, that's lovely! Thanks for the pics. I like the sapphires too, nice colour.

Jen

GORGEOUS collection! I've always said, we don't see enough emeralds around here! 

I think emeralds are gorgeous too.

I had an emerald ring for a while, but I actually sold it because it was too big for my hand. It looked silly on me. It was gorgeous though, and I'm always looking out for a smaller one.


I liked it, but it paid for a year's tuition at law school, a crib and a stroller, so no regrets!

I think that people don't choose emeralds for engagement rings so often because although they're stunning, they can be quite fragile. In the UK, coloured stone e-rings are popular, but usually sapphires and rubies. One disadvantage is that you can't put emeralds in an ultrasonic or steam cleaner, and that drove me nuts, because I really wanted to clean the diamonds. Plus, I'm hard on rings so I was always worried about whacking the stone off something and cracking it.

DH, I think that heirloom pieces are seen more as heirloom stones - the settings aren't so important to a lot of people. I think it's quite common to use an heirloom ring and re-set the stone. It's a nice way of keeping it in the family yet still giving someone exactly what they want for their e-ring. That said, I'm hopelessly sentimental and I would be very reluctant to break up a family piece. I guess it's all about personal choice. My SIL broke up my MIL's e-ring and MIL's mother's e-ring to make a piece for herself and each of her two daughters. They were both 5 stone bands, so they had 3 smallish but very lovely diamonds each to use in new pieces. DH was heartbroken that she did this, but the rest of the family were ok with it. I was beyond p*ssed off, since MIL actually left these rings to me, but that's life, I guess.

Jen

KEWL Emerald Jen!!!

DH- I believe that the harness of diamonds has some impact on many buyers when it comes to choosing an engagement ring.
Emeralds- which can obviously be gorgeous, are far softer than diamonds.


ON the heirloom issue, I'm with Jen....I feel the ring itself has a lot of intrinsic value on an antique piece. A shame to disassemble something like that.
In fact, I'm having a hard time thinking how we should set some of the older stones we've gotten recently.

David, for older diamonds, I'm a fan of old settings or reproductions of old settings.   It's a bit like decorating an older house.  You probably want to go easy on the IKEA in a Victorian home.  <G> Likewise, vintage diamonds look better in settings that are similar to those they might have been set in when they were new.

When I was young, long before I actually married, I thought that I'd want an antique ER.  However, so many of the ones I saw-- I didn't know where to look, obviously, and this was before the wonders of the internet-- had settings that were quite worn.

Filigree, in particular, often wears all the way through, especially in gold.

So, I went with a "new" ER.  Still, I love old things, and when necessary, new things made to look like old things.   

Kind of like putting tits on a bull?