Some Gemstone Facts

Historically gemstones were classified into two categories, precious stones and semi-precious stones, in this article we will talk about traditional precious stones. Only diamond, sapphire, emerald, and rub are labeled as precious stones and all the others fall under semi-precious stones category.

For a time, amethyst was categorized as a precious stone until the discovery it massive volume were unearthed in Brazil by 19th century. For some, pearl is also considered as a precious stone although it is not really a gemstone. Perhaps in vintage antique engagement rings they may suffice.


Nowadays, fashions styles and jewelries are often adorned with gemstones and the 4 precious stones, on the other hand, never ceases to top them all.

It is widely recognized that the hardest naturally occurring substance is the diamonds, discovered some 6000 years ago and have been known since as a precious stone, from 19th century onwards,diamonds became more and more popular as new techniques of processing are introduced, and more supply are coming up.

Several people also adore ruby as one of their favorite gemstones. Although ruby may come is different shades of red, the most sought after ruby is that with pigeon blood hue. All natural rubies have imperfections in them, including color impurities and inclusions to a trained eye the presence of these imperfections distinguish a genuine ruby from synthetics. The rubies that underwent various treatment are more common and affordable and the untreated one are of higher quality but are more expensive.

Another highly priced gemstone is sapphire, a gem that is blue in color. Sapphire generally ranges from pale blue color to deep blue ones which considered as the most valuable sapphire. Sapphires also come in many other colors, colorless, yellow, pale pink, orange, green, violet and black, they are called fancy color sapphire. Before the 19thcentury, only deep blue colored ones are recognized as sapphire.

Sapphire and ruby actually fall under the same class (corundum) and emerald is classified under different class )beryl). Medium to dark green variety of beryl is highly valued as a gemstone, most emeralds are flawed and cloudy, a flawless emerald with good color is one of the most sought after and command high prices. Most emeralds are oiled in order to improve there clarity, this is a generally accepted practice in the gem trade. To get a genuine expensive emerald however, you must always seek experts advise.

These days, several laboratories can actually create synthetic copies of these gemstones. Despite its being synthetic, most people are fond of these replicates because they are free from any inclusions normally found in genuine stones. They should not be dismissed as pieces of junk jewelry and should be classed as a well designed peace of fashion jewelry.

The hardness of these gemstones, like brooches vintage offer, are as such: diamonds with 10 mohs scale,ruby and sapphire at 9 on mohs scale, and emerald at 7.5 mohs scale. Therefore, they wont easily fade being if they are worn most of the time. One easy way to clean these stones is by using ultrasonic jewelry cleaner although for emerald, the practical way to clean it is by means of detergent washing.

Lastly, it is always good to invest of some things that are truly worthwhile and genuinely worth almost all the treasures that is why people normally choose gemstone as their investment because it can withstand the test of time with infallible beauty and elegance.