Imitation emeralds are most commonly found antique jewelry in the form of emerald doublets and triplets, which are composite stones. Composite stones are jewelry pieces comprised of more than one stone bonded together.

Emerald doublets
Emerald doublets were first used in antique jewelry but are making a comeback. There are two types of emerald doublets - the true doublet and the false doublet. Mascot emeralds and Soude emeralds are well-known emerald doublets.

True emerald doublets are created using two genuine emeralds and then bonding them together to form a single, larger emerald of better color than the originals. For example, using two pale green emeralds with a deep green glue will create a larger, more intense green composite stone.

False emerald doublets consist of a thin slab of emerald that is glued on top of a colored glass bottom to form a large composite emerald. Soude emeralds are a false emerald doublet that consists of a colorless spinel top and bottom pieces fused together with a green bonding agent. You can detect emerald triplets by immersing the stone in a liquid such as alcohol - the bottom and bottom pieces seem to disappear and all that is visible is the green bonder at the girdle.

Green glass
Other emerald imitations include using green glass. Some names include Broghton Emerald, Endura Emerald, Ferrer's Emerald, Medina Emerald, Mount St. Helens Emerald, Spanish Emerald, Esmeralda emeralds.

See other names for fake emeralds for a list of names and materials used.