- Color changing stones are among the most fascinating gemstones available! They include Alexandrite, Sapphire, Garnet ,and Zultanite. The color changes occur because of selective absorption and the transmission of light.
- The Kazanjian Red Diamond is one of only three red diamonds of more than five carats and is on display at the American Museum of Natural History through March 13, 2011. It was discovered in South Africa in the late 1920’s and was cut in Amsterdam after seven months of study.
- Emeralds are not easily scratched but, by nature, have inclusions and surface-reaching breaks, making them prone to chipping or breaking on impact.
- A corrundum (sapphire and ruby) is a nine on the Moh’s hardness scale, which means it is difficult to scratch. It does have a tendency to chip and crack when knocked against a hard surface. This is not due to cleavage, as in a diamond, but to brittleness.
- A common misconception is that diamond will not “break”. Actually, a diamond has the highest hardness score, which refers to scratches. However, diamond has four directions of cleavage and a sharp blow in one of these directions will cleave or split.
- Opal has been treasured as one of the most revered gemstones as far back as the beginning of civilization. It was not until the late 1880’s that opal was discovered in Australia.
- The terms precious and semi precious when referring to gemstones no longer apply. There are many colored gems that are more rare and command a higher price than those stones previously referred to as “precious”. In fact, the American Gem Trade Association instructs members to avoid using these terms when describing their gemstones.
- The mauve to purple stone, Taaffeite is about a million times scarcer than a diamond.
- Hackmanite was discovered in 1980 and displays an extremely rare phenomenon known as tenebrescence, which is the ability to change color when exposed to sunlight after being stored in a dark area. This effect can be repeated indefinitely.
- Pezzottaite was discovered in 2002 from one small deposit in central Madagascar. It was originally thought to be Morganite, the traditional pink Beryl, but is now known to be a Cesium and Lithium rich member of the Beryl group. It remains a very rare gemstone.
- Count Taaffe purchased several bags of faceted stones for about £14 in 1945. One of the stones that he originally identified as Spinel he later determined to be an as yet undiscovered gemstone. This gem was later named after him, Taaffeite (pronounced TARF-ite) .
- Sphene has the ability to break a beam of light into all of the spectral colors, which means that the colors will change depending upon the angle from which it is viewed. This phenomenon is referred to as dispersion
- Moldavite is believed to be the green stone in the Holy Grail and for thousands of years was felt to have powerful metaphysical energies.
- Moldavite is a green to greenish brown extremely rare stone, the result of intense meteorite showers, which took place between 15 and 20 million years ago.
- In 1857, David Howell of North Brook, New Jersey took a bite of his muscle stew and found a pearl of almost 400 grains. Charles Tiffany bought the pearl for $1500 and started the next large pearl rush.
- Red Spinel is a beautiful gem and can rival the color of many rubies. So much so that the Black Prince’s Ruby in the Crown Jewels of England has been found to be a red spinel!
- Canary Yellow diamonds have nitrogen atoms residing as single atoms interspersed throughout the diamond crystal lattice. This causes more of the green and blue colors to be absorbed causing a more intense fancy yellow color. Less than 1/10th of 1% of diamonds are found to be this Type 1b diamond.
- The flame fusion process, done in France in the 1880’s, is the earliest recorded synthesis of a gemstone. Auguste Verneuil perfected the process in the early 1900’s and made rubies, sapphires and many other synthetic gems.
- It takes pressure to force carbon atoms to bond together to form a diamond. This weight or pressure is equal to 7,300 tons. That is the weight of the entire Eiffel Tower pressing down on a 5 inch plate!
- Maw Sit Sit is located in Myanmar. It is an unknown village made famous by the Maw Sit Sit gem stone discovered there by Dr. Eduard Gubelin in 1963. The gem is intense green with mottled black spots that resembles fine jade.
- N.W. Ayers, a United States advertising company, was hired by the De Beers organization. In the 1940’s, it is the N.W. Ayers Company that created the famous trademarked slogan, A Diamond is Forever.
- Oysters secrete two substances to make a pearl, nacre and conchiolin. Nacre is calcium carbonate, which the oyster forms into aragonite. This has the same chemical make up as a roll of TUMS. So perhaps the most expensive antacid known was hundreds of years ago when pearls were crushed into a glass of wine to treat gastric distress for the king and queen!
- Pearls from 2500 BC to the late 19th century were all natural. This made them very rare and very expensive so that only kings, queens or other rulers owned them. Even the various religions give pearls their due by referring to the “pearly gates” of heaven!
- The main cause of color in most gemstone is the presence of impurities. These impurities also cause inclusions which can be seen under a loupe, microscope or with the naked eye.
- Tanzanite was discovered in 1967 and was made famous by Tiffany and Company, who first introduced this gem into the United States. There is only one mine source in the world, Tanzania. Most tanzanite is heat treated to bring out the beautiful blue to violet color.
- Since pearls are organic creations of an oyster, they have a lifetime of about 150 years. That is why we are rarely able to see any of the beautiful clothes decorated with pearls prior to around the 1850’s.
- Opals do not have a crystal structure, they are amorphous and contain from 15-30% water! Each opal is unique with a limitless variety of color and pattern
- Color changing stones are both beautiful and fascinating. The different coloring elements in the stones display one color under sunlight or florescent light and another in incandescent light. Alexandrite, sapphire ,zultanite and garnets are examples of stones that may be color changing.
- The three phase inclusions found in some Columbian emeralds are remnants of the ancient saltwater sea that existed where the emerald was formed!
- The star in a sapphire will have 6 rays; the star in a diopside will have four rays. This is a way to tell the difference between the much more valuable black star sapphire and the diopside.
- The phenomenon called asterism creates a star with three to twelve rays appearing to float across the top of the gem. A single ray of light will allow you to see the star. Asterism can be found in rubies, sapphires, garnets, diopside, opals and others.
- Did you know that a one carat sapphire, for example, is physically smaller than a one carat diamond? This is due to the weight to volume ratio comparison which is called specific gravity. The SG of a diamond is 3.52 and a sapphire is 4.0. That is why we list mm measurement with each stone !
- Most gemstones in their purest state are colorless. These gems get their color from impurities introduced into the crystal structure. For example, a colorless sapphire is aluminum oxide. If there is iron and titanium, you get a blue sapphire. If there is chromium, you get ruby.
- Heat treatment for gems has been done for centuries. It is considered a natural type of treatment, as it is a continuation of the process that takes place in the ground. The “standard” heat treatment is permanent.
- In order to see color in a gemstone, there must be light. A gem takes in all of the colors of the spectrum yet we only see one or a few colors. This is due to “selective absorption.” The gem absorbs some of these colors and those that are allowed to pass through the gem are the colors we see.
