Investing in Gemstones from Afghanistan: What Holds Value, and What to Check

A gemstone is a strange thing to invest in. It pays no interest, it has no exchange where it can be sold in a minute, and there is no index that tells you what it is worth today. What it has is rarity, and a long history of being wanted. A few stones of the finest quality have risen steadily in value for decades; a great many more have been sold to hopeful buyers at prices they will never see again. The difference lies in what you buy, what you pay, and what papers come with it.

What makes a coloured stone hold its value

Rarity first. A stone that is rare in its species, colour and size will be wanted again when you come to sell it; a stone that is common will not. Then treatment: an untreated stone of fine colour is rarer than a treated one, and the market pays for the difference. Then size, colour and clarity together, which is why one large fine stone is a better store of value than a handful of small ones. And then papers: a current report from a leading laboratory such as SSEF, Gübelin, GIA, AGL or Lotus, stating the treatment and, where it can be told, the origin. Without one, a buyer has only your word.

The International Gem Society warns that the phrase investment grade has no clear meaning when applied to coloured stones, and that you cannot pay retail for a gemstone and expect to sell it at a profit in a few years. Its rule is to buy at wholesale, and its rule of thumb is that wholesale runs at about a third of retail. Rapaport's experts make the same point from the other side: resale happens in a trading environment, among dealers and at auction, and the stones that have done well there since the late 1980s are rubies, sapphires and spinels of perfect colour over five carats.

Afghan stones, one by one

• Panjshir emerald is the strongest case. The Afghan Emerald, 10.11 carats, sold at Christie's Hong Kong in 2015 for 2,275,236 US dollars, about 225,000 a carat, the record for a non-Colombian emerald. Panjshir stones of three to five carats have sold at Bonhams for about 6,550 dollars a carat in 2023 and at Phillips for about 12,900 Swiss francs a carat in 2025. A laboratory can confirm Panjshir origin, which matters at resale. Most emeralds are oiled; the degree, stated on the report, changes the price.
• Jegdalek ruby, if unheated and of fine colour, is a real stone with a real market: dealers put the premium for unheated ruby over heated at 30 to 200 per cent. But about three quarters of what Jegdalek produces is pink sapphire rather than ruby, and top-quality stones rarely pass five carats, so fine ones are few.
• Fine Afghan tourmaline, the blue indicolite and the best pinks of Paprok, sells to collectors at hundreds of dollars a carat and has no commercial synthetic, but its market is narrow and its prices move with fashion. It is a collector's stone more than a store of value.
• Kunzite is beautiful and a poor investment. Its colour fades in strong light, and its price per carat barely rises with size, at about ten to twenty US dollars a carat for fine stones in general.
• Lapis lazuli is sold by the kilogram, from about five US dollars for low grades to upwards of ten thousand euros for the purest, and its value lies in carving, jewellery and pigment rather than in the stone as an asset.
• Aquamarine and morganite from Nuristan are lovely and abundant, and nearly all aquamarine is heated, which limits their value as investments.

The risks

• Liquidity. Selling a stone takes a buyer, and a buyer usually means a dealer paying wholesale or an auction house that may take months and charges a commission. Rapaport's experts note that resale happens in a trading environment, not in a shop.
• No price index. There is no published market price for a coloured stone; the trade prices against private guides, so two honest valuations can differ widely.
• Treatments and fakes. Heating, oiling, dyeing and glass-filling all change value, and synthetic emerald and ruby exist. A stone bought without a laboratory report is a stone whose value you do not know.
• Origin claims. Many stones are sold as Afghan or Panjshir because those names sell. Only some origins can be confirmed by a laboratory.
• The law. Buyers in the United States must follow the conditions of General License 20 for payments connected to Afghanistan; our buying guide sets out the rules for the UK, the EU and the US.
• Scams. Action Fraud lists gemstones among the goods sold as investments by cold callers, often at inflated prices and sometimes in sealed bags the buyer is told not to open. In the UK such sellers need no authorisation, and buyers have no ombudsman and no compensation scheme.

If you still want to

• Buy a stone you would be happy to own if its price never rose.
• Buy at or near wholesale, from the source if you can, and never from a cold caller.
• Insist on a current report from a leading laboratory, in your name or transferable, before you pay for any stone of value.
• Prefer one fine stone to many small ones, and untreated to treated where the price allows.
• Keep every paper: the invoice, the report, the export documents, the import declaration.
• Commit only money you can leave alone for years, and expect to sell through a dealer or an auction house when the time comes.

We source Afghan stones at first hand, from the miners and first dealers in Nuristan, Panjshir, Badakhshan and Jegdalek, and we can arrange laboratory reports at your cost before you buy. We will also tell you plainly when a stone you are offered, by us or by anyone else, is not worth what is asked for it.