expert answers to common gemstone questions covering quality, authenticity, certification, pricing, treatments, value, and gemstone care tips.
After mining, the rough gems are mostly sorted entirely by hand, based on their mineral species, hue, potential size, shape and internal clarity. Often, the process happens under natural sunlight, using simple jeweller’s loupes, so things are seen up close. The experts then look carefully at the rough stock to figure out what the maximum…
Gemstones in Sri Lanka are mainly obtained with an older, low-impact pit mining style, where diggers make thin, reinforced vertical boreholes into ancient river channels, trying to reach gem-bearing gravel called illam, in local terms. After the illam is pulled out, it gets rinsed using shallow cone-like wicker baskets, so the heavier stones fall through…
Natural gemstones form over millions of years, through geological processes that involve intense heat and pressure, plus the mixing and interaction of mineral-rich fluids, deep in the Earth’s crust or even in the mantle. In the end, the geological setting controls what gem appears. With igneous activity, crystals like diamonds and peridot form straight from…
Gemstone prices get set by weighing the “Four Cs”: colour, clarity, cut and carat weight, with market demand, how scarce the material is, what kind of artificial treatments have been applied and whether the geographic origin is documented. Unlike diamonds, which have an extremely standardised pricing setup tied to the Rapaport list, coloured gemstones are…
Modern birthstones are assigned according to a standardised commercial list made by the Jewelers of America in 1912, which updated and codified older links that trace back to the biblical Breastplate of Aaron, along with ancient astrological signs. In past times, people dressed themselves in different gemstones each month because of astrological ideas and imagined…
Basic home gemstone testing kits are moderately accurate for telling diamonds from common lookalikes, like cubic zirconia, but they are quite unreliable when someone tries to pin down coloured gemstones, lab-made synthetics, or more complicated gem treatments. Most consumer thermal tools, or electrical conductivity testers, cannot truly sort out a natural gemstone from a lab-created…
Yes, peridot needs careful handling because it is a relatively soft gemstone, scoring between 6.5 and 7 on the Mohs scale. It is also quite sensitive to fast temperature shifts and harsh cleaning chemicals. To avoid tiny scratches and abrasions, peridot jewellery should be kept apart from harder stones, like diamonds or sapphires. It must…
Gemstone size, measured in carat weight, directly and exponentially affects value, because bigger, high-quality specimens are extremely rare in nature. So the price per carat jumps a lot when the stone overall gets larger, and this isn’t subtle. Also, value does not scale in a straight line with weight. For instance, a flawless 2-carat sapphire…
Yes, a gemstone’s geographic origin genuinely affects its price, especially for stones people really want, like sapphires, rubies and emeralds. Gems coming from historically notable places, like Kashmir sapphires or Burmese rubies, often end up with a significant premium in the market. That origin premium happens because of a mix of rare trace elements, a…
Yes, in gemstones, colour is usually considered the key factor for value, and in practice, it often surpasses size. A smaller gem that has exceptional colour strength and saturation will usually fetch a higher price than a larger stone that looks dull or washed out. Gemologists check colour through hue, tone and saturation. A gem…