Emeralds or diamonds?

Emeralds are more expensive, as you said cutting costs are higher but also the bigger rough stones come from the mountains of Pakistan.

Diamonds are much more common than emeralds.

Valuable means worth a lot of money…since Emeralds are priced higher than diamonds than the Emeralds are more valuable.

Actually, emeralds can now be produced in a lab more cheaply, where as, diamonds are a bit more difficult. Emeralds are also more notoriously brittle and more difficult to cut. It has to do with their crystalline structure. If I remember my inorganic chemistry correctly, all gemstones have them and it affects their hardness and how they fracture naturally when hit. Naturally occurring emeralds are more rare, but for both gems, their demand and supply are tightly controlled and manipulated to give only the appearance of value. It’s a marketing ploy. Also, they depreciate as soon as you buy them from the retailer. There is no real value on them. Now, build a chicken coop and raise chickens, plant a garden every year and can and dry and preserve your harvest for the year… THAT has some real value.

Emeralds. I much prefer colored gemstones.

I think you probably have to stipulate, “naturally occurring”.

Otherwise, I’m going to go with @cazzie‘s answer.
Practically speaking, neither emeralds nor diamonds have a lot of worth/value. Man can make all the diamonds needed for industrial/hardness applications, and the average person can’t tell real gems from fake.

I have a friend that’s a jeweler and I was trying to find a small gem for some repair. When I asked, he pulled open his work drawer and there was a bowl full of small gemstones. He scooped a teaspoon or so into a bag and gave them to me.

If you say naturally occurring emerald or diamond, then emerald is more expensive and that is why valuable in terms of money. Emerald is again a rare gemstone, which makes it all the more valued and treasured.

From what i know, pound for pound it is emeralds in part they are only found in a few regions of the world, because they are not tied to coal. That being said, they are harder to mine once they are actually found. I like them better for that reason.