The Tough Gem: Ruby

Ruby is a species of corundum and ranges in color from orange-red to purple-red. It is medium light to very dark in tone and quite strong in saturation. It is a hexagonal crystal that often comes in six-sided prisms, terminated by flat faces.

Ruby registers a 9 on the hardness scale and is quite tough unlike emerald, and not nearly as subject to breakage. Under long wave ultraviolet, a ruby will fluoresce red or orange-red to inert and under short wave should fluoresce moderate red to orange-red.

Rubies come from a number of areas including Burma, which is usually considered as the finest source of rubies in the world. The best Burma stones are medium dark and vivid red.

Thailand produces stones which are a bit dark in tone and range from purple to brownish red because they have a slight bit of iron in them.  Africa (Kenya, Tanzania) produces stones that are normally highly included although reminiscent of Burma in color. Sri Lanka has occasional rubies but more often sapphires that often mask as rubies.

In the U.S.A., North Carolina and Montana produce a few stones. Australia produces fairly poor quality stones as does India and Colombia, Nepal and Pakistan.

Rubies tend to be valued partially by the country of their origin. Some rubies now come with authenticated certificates of origin and the word Burma will bring a characteristically premium price even when considered next to a Thai ruby that may appear identical to the Burma ruby under incandescent light.

Under fluorescent light, the Burma ruby will appear to fluoresce slightly and take on a deeper saturation. This is a highly sought after quality. Burma rubies also have some fine rutile needles that are commonly referred to as "silk" that add rather than detract to the attractiveness of the stone and further establish it as a Burma stone.

In order to establish a country of origin, a certified lab such as the American Gemological Laboratories in New York, has to study the ruby for body color under various conditions, fluorescence and inclusions. If a ruby is certified as a top Burma ruby, the price may be 1 1/2 or twice what it was as an unknown or as a presumed Thai ruby.

Rubies from Thailand tend to have a brownish or purplish overtone. Those from Sri Lanka are generally very pink in color and more correctly referred to as pink sapphire.

Types of Emeralds

Color is a critical factor in emeralds and constitutes about half of the emerald's value (clarity 30% and cut 20%).

• Hue describes the primary color and any other colors in the stone. Most emeralds are green hued with a bluish hue also visible, especially the better Colombian-type emeralds.
• Tone is the depth or darkness of the color as perceived by the eye.
• Saturation is the amount of hue present in any given color.

Depending upon where the emeralds come from, they can exhibit a wide range of color; i.e., Brazilian emeralds are usually lighter toned and less saturated than their Colombian cousins.

The green in the emerald is caused by the trace element of chromium. If the color is very light green, the stone is more correctly referred to as green beryl, not emerald.

Emeralds are often oiled to help their appearance. Normally an uncolored oil such as Merck cedar wood oil is used. The stone may soak in the oil for several days and will actually take the oil in somewhat, helping bring out the color and "wedding" on some of the dry inclusions, making the stone look better.

If one finds an emerald that is mild in color or has a grayish hue, it is a good bet to soak it in oil a couple days and it may regain its green color, not to mention its value.

A more unscrupulous improvement is to use dye or oil with color in it. It is possible to influence the color of a stone by having it soak up colored oil.

Other problems with buying emeralds are the fact that there are a  number of stones that look like emeralds and overlap colors. Tsavorite, a garnet found in Kenya and Tanzania, looks quite a bit like emerald and has a pure green hue, although it tends to be a little bit more yellowish and never has the blue hue of emerald.

Chrome tourmaline is another stone that looks much like an emerald with a moderately strong green color. Another emerald look-alike comes from Africa and is called chrome diopside. All these stones can, and are, sold as emeralds to the unwary.

Different emeralds from different areas tend to have individually shaped inclusions; i.e., slight pyrite inclusions are typical of emeralds from Colombia although they can be seen in stones from other sources.

A three phase inclusion that shows up under a 10x or stronger microscope, which has a distinctly liquid area, a gas bubble in a solid square rock crystal, salt lying superimposed on each other inside a jagged edged cavity, is typical of emeralds from Colombia and proves their natural origin.

Tropic emeralds from Colombia sometime exhibit six fine radiating arms of black carbon inclusions, spoke-like in appearance.  Another type of this stone has six arms of emeralds extending from the center of the crystal with a white shaped wedge area in between. When these stones are cut and mounted, they are valuable because of their inclusions.

Emeralds: The Gentle Gems

Emeralds are a green crystal of beryllium-aluminum silicate. They are hexagonal prismatic crystal with a hardness of 7 1/2 to 8 on the Mohs scale. They are not tough stones and may be broken easily by mishandling or the use of severe chemicals or ultrasonic cleaners. If you own an emerald, be careful of it. Don't wear it during sports. Don't have a jeweler clean it in an ultrasonic cleaner as it may shatter.

Emeralds also break under applications of heat and should never be in a ring that is soldered. Under ultraviolet light they may fluoresce lightly, orange-ish red to red, or they may be inert.

Emeralds come from a number of sources. The best come from Colombia. These are the purest colored and generally the finest stones. The emeralds from Brazil are lighter, have more inclusions and are generally smaller than from other areas. Zambia, Africa, produces some bluish stones and some near-Colombian stones. Zimbabwe is home to a particular emerald known as the sandawana emerald which is generally small with a rich green color. Anything over 1/3 carat is rare.

South Africa produces some low-quality emeralds. Tanzania produces a few very good quality emeralds. Pakistan has just discovered some high-quality emeralds. Afghanistan tends to produce flawed but good colored emeralds. Russia does produce emeralds but doesn't like to let them out of the country.[1] Australia produces some dubious quality emeralds and North Carolina a few gems. Austria and India occasionally produce emeralds.

Emeralds are not unusual as the word emerald simply indicates an extremely nice version of a fairly common stone known as beryl. It is possible to buy something legitimately called an emerald for about $5 a carat. Obviously this is full of flaws, not transparent and so impure in color it looks more like jade than an emerald. They would never be sold in a jewelry store but emeralds do sell on TV and some of the better magazines for $5 per carat.

Gem quality emeralds range anywhere from $400 to $20,000 a carat, depending upon their quality. As the stones get larger, they become increasingly rare and sell for considerably more money.

[1] This is dated; I do not know the exact laws as of today.

How to Avoid Precious Stone Scams

Dealing with small objects of high value such as precious stones, it's not surprising to find there are a number of creative ongoing scams. The most obvious, of course, is simply to sell a less valuable stone in a more valuable rating. We have seen, in the case of diamonds, how even though subjective, a small difference in the rating can make a large difference in the price. Again, never buy mounted stones.

Substitution of less valuable stones is an offshoot of this where colorless topaz may be substituted for diamonds since most stones are colorless and have quite a bit of luster. The specific gravity of the topaz will approach that of a diamond. Of course, it won't pass other tests for a diamond.

Yellow quartz is often substituted for a yellow diamond. Red spinel is often offered for ruby. The worst examples of this occur in areas where the real stones are found.

Natural emeralds sold on the streets of Colombia, Peru and Brazil are often made from the bottoms of 7-Up bottles.

Sometimes diamonds are manipulated by taking a yellow diamond and super polishing it to look white. On occasion oil may be rubbed in to make it whiter.

Burma, India, Ceylon, Brazil, Peru and even Hong Kong and Thailand are notorious places for substitution of non-gem materials in gem sales.

Sometimes cut stones in upper and lower portions are cemented together. This is known as a doublet. It is possible to take two diamonds, the upper portion one and the lower of another and cement them together to create one diamond without the inherent flaws that the opposite piece had before the fusing process.

It is also possible, and is almost as common, to find the upper portion of a doublet is genuine while the lower portion is cut from a comparatively worthless material such as quartz or glass and then glued. If this is done with a great amount of skill, it will have the appearance of a single stone. It is legal to combine things such as diamonds, rubies, and sapphire doublets if they are not sold fraudulently.

The stone may be dropped in water or acetone and if it's a glued doublet, the glue will dissolve and the stone come apart. However, if glass has been used that's been fused to a diamond top, this will have no effect and the fusion must be found by careful, microscopic examination. This fraud is extremely difficult to detect.

A better test is to immerse the stone in a strong, refracting liquid such as methylene iodide. This is diluted until suddenly one part of the stone becomes invisible. This occurs when the refraction index of a liquid is the same as that of the stone and the quartz portion which has a much lower refraction number becomes invisible, leaving the diamond portion visible. This is an indication of a double stone. Indian jewelers are especially known for their production of such doublet stones.

For the extremely naive, it is possible to buy a false doublet. Here the color of the lower portion is imparted to the upper harder portion but neither party may be gem quality. This is when a piece of rock crystal quartz, a rather colorless stone, is used or glued to colored glass or colored stones. In this case, the top part will take on the color of the bottom part, although neither one is a gem stone. Extremely cheap doublets have been passed off by using simple colored gelatin or coloring and quartz or glass and a bit of glue.

Besides these tricks designed to use modified stone, there are scams such as examining a stone or piece of jewelry and having a second made to match and swapping the two. This can be done when someone goes to answer a newspaper ad, does not buy it but takes a picture or impression of it. Then his friend makes the phony and goes to "examine" the piece and switches the new for the old.

It may also be discovered a stone has been replaced with CZ after the piece was left for cleaning or appraisals.

Faked stones mounted in jewelry and then hocked is the oldest game in the world. The perpetrator runs out of money, offers to leave his precious ring as a security until he can get the money he borrows back to the person. The person may or may not skip with the stone, feeling he has the $5,000 ring.

Lab Created Gems

There are a couple of different systems for forming synthetic rubies and emeralds. One is to use a seed chip of the natural stone and then combine chemicals, heat and pressure to "grow" rubies and emeralds. The latest processes are known as flux processes, which combine heat and/or pressure to work on the ingredients composing the gemestone to be synthesized (The ingredients are fairly easy to come by; i.e., carbon for diamonds or beryl for emeralds).

These flux processes are designed to produce richly colored stones and almost always do. They usually have greater clarity than the natural variety although sometimes offer distinguishing inclusions which telltale their origin.

The most famous emeralds are probably Chatham synthetics which grow in a group of crystals. They were first grown in 1935 by Caroll Chatham of San Francisco. The Chatham family still grows these gems but doesn't care to discuss the process. The Chatham emerald sometimes has small spicule inclusions on the face of the facets as a result of the crystal forming solution.

Gilson is another variety of snythetic emerald. There is also a Japanese gentleman by the name of Kazuo Inamora, President of Kyoto Ceramics, who has three showrooms in Japan and one in Beverly Hills selling "created" rubies and emeralds. These created stones have caught on quite well in other countries including Japan and may or many not catch on here. The price difference between the synthetic and the natural stones is quite great.

Once again, we've had experience with Chatham's emeralds and have had a number of gemologists that had great difficulty telling the natural emerald from the Chatham emerald. In many cases, they both would have passed off as natural stones.

Cubic Zirconia

Other than natural diamonds, there is the problem of cubic zirconia or CZ. It is usually sold under a trade name such as Zirconia, Phyanite and Diamonique. Technically, CZ is not a synthetic diamond but it is a crystallization of the chemical zirconium that, when cut, has most of the optical characteristics of a diamond.

CZ is not as hard as a diamond and it does have a different specific gravity. It takes 1.70 carat CZ to equal 1 carat diamond in weight.

CZs, however, in the last few years, have become increasingly close to diamonds and good CZs are impossible to tell from diamonds by the eye. In fact, we had several gemologists look at unmounted CZ and unmounted diamonds, and they admitted they could not tell the difference. The only one who did pick out the CZ with some regularity was because, he said, the stones were too flawless to be diamonds. Hardly a reliable way to judge stones.

As one can see, the potential for fraudulent misuse of CZ is quite high and there have been a number of occasions where people were sold CZ instead of diamonds, turned their diamond rings into unscrupulous jewelers or gemologists, only to have CZ put in the same mountings and returned to them. There have been a number of cases of people looking at diamonds in a jewelry store, and with a quick distraction, replacing the diamond in full view of the jeweler with a CZ and giving that back instead. These will pass on sight.  How do you tell a CZ from a diamond? Well, luckily technology has come to the rescue. There are a number of devices on the market that, for under $150, will electronically test the material to see if it is a diamond or not. Diamonds have unique electrical resistance patterns and CZ have their own. These devices are simply touched to the material in question and will tell if it is a diamond or a CZ. It is a good thing to have on hand if one plans on dealing in gems.

Synthetic Stones or Created Gems

All precious stones have bad name counterparts, some of which are better than others. Synthetic stones (or by the correct name "created gems") are defined by law as "chemically, physically and optically" the same as real gemstones.

They are more expensive than imitation or faux stones which don't have the real characteristics but they're considerably cheaper than natural stones of the same variety. As long ago as in Victorian times, the French were creating synthetic rubies, emeralds and sapphires, which is a surprise to some people who buy estate jewelry thinking it contains a real stone only to find it is a synthetic stone.

Today's methods are definitely more sophisticated and create gems so good that only trained jewelers and gemologists can tell them apart from their natural cousins.

It's possible to create flaws in a created stone although it's more common to see created stones being too flawless or too perfect to be true.

Man made diamonds have existed for years although they have primarily been of industrial quality. Scientists have claimed it is impossible to make gem quality diamonds. This is not true. About 25 years ago General Electric discovered it could make perfect, flawless gem quality diamonds which were impossible to tell from their natural cousins. They decided not to continue the experiment in any mass version because it was "economically unfeasible."

In the 1950's the Soviets discovered a large diamond pipe in Siberia and began producing gem quality diamonds. In 1962 the CSP decided to buy all uncut diamonds produced by the Soviet Union as to allow them to be under De Beers price control. They expected that, based on comparisons with their own mines in South Africa, the Soviets would begin to run out of diamonds in about 1970 and, therefore, they could afford to buy all the diamonds they would produce.

Approximately once a month, a chartered aircraft landed in London and $50,000,000 worth of diamonds were turned over to De Beers Diamond Trading Company for the equivalent hard currency.

De Beers is not very fond of this arrangement but they feel they must do it in order to keep up the diamond prices.

However, an unusual development occurred to the shock of De Beers. The size of the Soviet shipments did not stop in 1970 but rather increased dramatically between 1970 and 1975, besides which the diamonds seemed to be very homogeneous in character, averaging 1/4 carat, flawless with sharp, angular edges and a slight green tint. The Soviet diamonds seemed to be remarkably uniform in size and shape and, unlike their African counterparts, did not come in a multitude of round, square, flat, triangular or twisted shapes but rather mere octahedron.

Coincidentally, the Soviets, under some pressure, have admitted they, with a group of 1200 researchers, developed a way to manufacture a flawless gem quality diamond. This process was officially developed in the 1960's by one Leonid Veres Yagin. The Soviets claim they are not manufacturing these gems but they are natural gems that they keep selling to De Beers.

American agencies, after numerous requests, were finally allowed to visit the Siberian mine and found it hopelessly inadequate in size and facilities to process even more than a fraction of the diamonds the Soviets are showing De Beers. The De Beers insist these diamonds are natural and deny the Soviets have the capability to flood the diamond market with a virtually unlimited supply.

Alternative Identification Methods

Another reliable indicator used is a scale of hardness indicator. As most people realize, diamonds are the hardest stone in the world. The hardness scale normally refers to something called Mohs hardness.

The Mohs scale is a 0 - 10 scale. There is another scale that's 0 -15 making it easier to differentiate between the marginal gems that fall between 9 - 10, but the Mohs scale is primarily in use. Hardness simply refers to the ability of one material to scratch another. Harder material always scratches a softer material. The difficulty in making the scratch or appearance does not come into play. Simply the fact that it can be made.

It should be pointed out that the Mohs scale does not correlate to the relative hardness of the materials. In other words, a diamond is not something that is 10x harder than something that is a 1 on the scale. The scale is simply there to present a basis on which, when a material is scratched, another material can be identified as harder.

Diamonds are a 10 on the hardness scale. Quartz is a 7 on the hardness scale as are most types of tourmaline. Most garnets are 7 1/4 on the scale. Synthetic emerald tends to be 7 1/4 to 7 1/2. Silicon carbide is a 9 1/4 to 9 1/2 on the scale, meaning it will not scratch diamond and diamond will scratch it. Opals begin at 4 1/2 and go up through 5 on the scale while turquoise is 5. Rubies are 9 on the hardness scale.

It is also possible to set a piece of gem material between two Polaroid plates that are set so that no light may be seen between them. The lower plate that the gem sits on is known as a polarizer. The upper plate is the analyzer. The polarizer is fixed but the analyzer is rotated.

If during a complete rotation, the material remains dark with no change, it is called isotropic. If it is non isotropic, it will change from light to dark four times during a complete rotation. The normal non isotropic pattern is a sharp cutoff from light to dark, much as extinguishing a fire. By doing this with a gem, it is possible to establish a refractive index. However, this is a fairly mind boggling exercise and there are easier ways to tell, at least with diamonds.

Single Stone Identification

The odds on finding an uncut diamond, unless one happens to be walking on a patrolled, electrified, mined and guard dog guarded beach in South Africa, are fairly rare (hence, the phrase "blood diamond"). However, uncut diamonds have a number of characteristics that lend ease to their identification.

They normally appear as cloudy, white or slightly colored pebbles with a unique coal, greasy feel to the touch as they are excellent conductors of heat. Natural diamonds can be dipped in water and will not remain "wet". The water does not stick to the surface. These diamonds do, however, stick to common axle grease when passed over them, but most stones will not.

Natural diamonds also occur as crystals and normally have at least one side of the crystal that is flat and appears as a facet. Sometimes more than one side will take on this characteristic.

Positive identification of diamonds or other gems is achieved by a number of more scientific methods. Specific gravity is a good place to start. This concept is very simple. It is based upon the weight of a certain material in relation to the weight in an equal volume of water.

If the material has a specific gravity of four, it will weigh four times as much as with that much water. Specific gravity is usually checked by using weighing scales that allow suspension of the specimen. First it's weighed in air, then it's weighed in water. The weight in water subtracted from the weight in air with the quotient divided into the weight in air. This gives the specific gravity of the material.

Most gem materials have a specific gravity of less than four. If somebody wants an accurate but fairly fast method, he can produce a few heavy liquids and bottle them to suit his needs. There are a number of liquids such as tetrabromo ethane and methylene iodine that will work. The first having a specific rate of 2.95 that can be diluted with kerosene to any gravity one wishes and the second, 3.33. It can be diluted with toluene to produce a series of liquids of certain gravities in between. Leaving the material in question in the bottle, you can tell at a glance if correct and what the specific gravity and the density is.

The specific gravity of diamonds varies slightly depending on where the diamond came from but will fall between 3.50 and 3.53.

Policy Shift in De Beers CSO

Since the company was founded in 1888, De Beers followed a strategy of supply control. In addition to mining its own diamonds, it bought diamonds from other producers and had what it called the "central selling organization," controlling some 90% of the world's diamonds. Its tight control over such a vast amount of supply enabled De Beers to keep prices high for a commodity that is neither particularly scarce nor useful. If a competitor offered diamonds on the market outside of De Beers' central selling organization, De Beers would simply flood the market with similar stones, thus eliminating any pricing power the competitor might offer.

In a recent article in Business Week we read:

By the end of the 1990s, the business model of controlling supply and managing how much of its inventory went to market at any time was no longer effective: New sources of diamonds were discovered in sufficient quantity that they could be sold competitively outside of De Beers' central selling organization. Demand for diamonds was dropping at a time when demand for other luxury goods was increasing. Brand-conscious consumers viewed the stones as anonymous commodities, and the precious stones, long marketed as an emblem of eternal love, became tainted by the phrase "blood diamonds" and came to symbolize the ill-gotten gains of rogue governments.

So, De Beers shifted its strategy from managing supply to driving demand. Under its "Supplier of Choice" program, De Beers had the goals of stimulating diamond demand by 5% per year; improving the efficiency and margins of all De Beers operations, from mining to sales; and leveraging the De Beers brand by offering De Beers-branded jewelry directly to consumers.

Availability and Prices of Diamonds

Diamonds are found literally the world over from black specimens in Brazil to flawless whites in Arkansas. Unquestionably the largest supply of diamonds comes from South Africa where the mines are owned and run by the De Beers family and have been for a number of years. De Beers closely guard both the stones and information about their production.

Diamonds are found typically in a type of formation known as a pipe because of its resemblance to a pipe driven vertically in the ground. The top part of the pipe normally contains yellow earth which contains natural stones which can be fairly easily crumbled and separated out by specific gravity and the fact that diamonds stick to grease. Most stones do not.

Once the yellow earth pushed from the pipe is used up, the second section is known as blue earth. This is a much harder, clay-like material that at first was thought to contain no diamonds and be too hard to crack open because any diamonds inside would be smashed by the cracking process. It was later discovered this clay-like material dries in the sun or under artificial heat to a consistency that allows it to be crumbled. It does contain as many or more stones as the yellow earth section of the pipe does.

De Beers have a unique position, more so than any other firm in any other field of commodities. They literally control the price and availability of diamonds the world over. They do this through something called the Central Selling Organization (CSO). The CSO has controlled the sales of almost all gem quality diamonds in the world until recently.

They allow sales in a unique ceremony known as a sight allocation where upon a De Beers authorized dealer is allowed to buy a certain number of stones they select, wrap and deliver to him at a price they set. This is not an offering but a take-it-or-leave-it situation and if one leaves too many finally De Beer or CSO no longer deals with that particular person. He will no longer be a sight holder. This relationship between the sight holders and the CSO is an instrument to instill fear in the wholesaler who depends upon a single supplier.

The CSO, in order to maintain its level of prices, buys or guarantees to buy all natural diamonds produced in the world. They do this in order to maintain an exact supply and demand ratio they feel is advantageous to the market.

Extra stones are stored in bank vaults, supposedly in London and a few other countries and only marketed when the supply for them increases. De Beers and their organization, the CSO, do not make public exactly how many diamonds are being produced and how many are being released or what the price would fall to if the natural odds of supply and demand took over, rather than the structured sales organization.

Domination by a Beauty So Pure

One of the best examples depicting the obsession and passion for diamonds has been the following text in Ian Fleming's "Diamonds are Forever". Here, M shows James Bond what makes a quality gem:

"Don't push it in. Screw it in," said M impatiently.

James Bond, making a mental note to pass M's dictum on to the Chief of Staff, again picked up the jeweler's glass from the desk where it had fallen and this time managed to fix it securely into the socket of his right eye.

Although it was late July and the room was bright with sunshine, M had switched on his desk light and tilted it so that it shone straight at Bond. Bond picked the brilliant-cut stone up and held it to the light. As he turned it between his fingers, all the colors of the rainbow flashed back at him from its mesh of facets until his eye was tired with the dazzle.

He took out the jeweler's glass and tried to think of something appropriate to say.

M looked at him quizzically. "Fine stone?"

"Wonderful," said Bond. "It must be worth a lot of money."

"A few pounds for the cutting," said M dryly. "It's a bit of quartz. Now then, let's try again." He consulted a list on the desk in front of him and selected a fold of tissue paper, verified the number written on it, unfolded it and pushed it across to Bond.

Bond put the piece of quartz back into its own wrapping and picked up the second sample.

"It's easy for you, Sir," he smiled at M. "You've got the crib." He screwed the glass back into his eye and held the stone, if it was a stone, up to the light.

This time, he thought, there could be no doubt about it. This stone also had the thirty-two facets above and the twenty-four below of the brilliant-cut, and it was also about twenty carats, but what he now held had a heart of blue-white flame, and the infinite colors reflected and refracted from its depths lanced into his eye like needles. With his left hand he picked up the quartz dummy and held it beside the diamond in front of his glass. It was a lifeless chunk of matter, almost opaque beside the dazzling translucence of the diamond, and the rainbow colors he had seen a few minutes before were now coarse and muddy.

Bond put down the piece of quartz and gazed again into the heart of the diamond. Now he could understand the passion that diamonds had inspired through the centuries, the almost sexual love they aroused among those who handled them and cut them and traded in them. It was domination by a beauty so pure that it held a kind of truth, a divine authority before which all other material things turned, like the bit of quartz, to clay. In these few minutes Bond understood the myth of diamonds, and he knew that he would never forget what he had suddenly seen inside the heart of this stone.

The Need for Appraisals

Reasons for getting an accredited appraisal are having the stone you want insured, or when you go to sell the stone, having an appraisal that verifies the stone's quality to an unsophisticated buyer and that lists the price considerably higher than you actually expect to get for the stone, which may help sell the stone.

This is a nice line of thinking as long as you are the seller and not the buyer. It is a buyer beware type of business and you should know what you're getting and should take all safeguards possible to insure you're getting what you think you are. If you're buying in a slightly dubious situation and perhaps are not as concerned with the stone's pedigree as some people would be, you should be prepared to never see the seller again and live or die on your evaluation of the stone, not a piece of paper from an appraiser.

It should also be pointed out that in certain situations one would not want to take a stone in to an appraiser. I will leave this to the imagination of the reader.

Although appraisals are intended for an insurance company's benefit, one should realize that if an insured stone is stolen or otherwise destroyed, the insurance company may want additional information regarding the purchase of the stone along with an independent appraisal. There are exceptions to this rule. If this stone was a gift or was left to one in an estate, obviously an appraisal becomes the primary instrument of value determination and, as such, is extremely useful to have on hand.

As a sidebar here, there are ways of destroying or damaging a diamond, even though a diamond is one of the hardest materials known to man. As previously pointed out, they are brittle. If you strike a diamond with a hammer, you'll dissolve it into useless industrial dust. If you touch a diamond to an acetylene torch of significant temperature, you will observe an extremely interesting and costly phenomenon where the diamond turns back into the same black carbon that it came from.

Graphite, in other words. Once this happens the only recourse is to hope the diamond was large enough to burn in the furnace and get some heat because there is no way of changing it back quite as readily to its crystalline form.

Diamond Prices and Appraisals

Wholesalers and for that matter, diamond retailers, buy their diamonds on a per carat basis and if you are going to buy from anyone in the business, you should consider the stone in that same light.

It is practically impossible to quote diamond prices in a paper like this because they are subject to change and market fluctuations. Retail diamond prices are also subject to seasonal conditions and one will find that holidays and gift giving times such as Christmas tend to bring about severe prices from retail outlets while the spring and summer months will often evoke a more favorable estimate from a retailer who needs to make his rent that month.

Wholesale diamond prices should not change too much due to seasons or gift giving times. Wholesale prices will vary when the market demands exceed supply and also tend, as with gold, to function somewhat independently and opposite of "soft" currency such as the dollar.

The price one pays is determined by how much the seller wants to sell the stone and how much the buyer wants to buy it. Obviously in certain situations, stones are cheaper than they would be in a high markup area such as with a retail jeweler.

A stone may come with an appraisal sheet from one of the two gemological societies recognized in America. This sheet, as we have seen, details a number of qualities about the stone and will establish an appraised price. A couple things one should be aware of about appraisals; the first is that they're invalid generally.

Appraisals are an instrument designed for insurance companies to establish a possible price on a diamond that includes a number of factors such as increase in value during ownership. The appraisal sheet will be inflated over the value of the diamond. One never expects to pay full appraisal price for a diamond and if one does, the term "saw you coming" falls quite aptly into place.

Appraisals also vary from person to person even with accredited gemologists. The same stone can bring about two entirely separate appraisals that may differ in value by hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Again, the appraisal is a piece of paper that allows the insurance company to set a value on the stone, not that the insurance company will necessarily pay off the appraisal at full price either.

One cannot make a living by buying diamonds, having them appraised and then reporting them to the insurance company for too long.

Appraisals, on a very general basis, tend to be nearly double the price that a stone will actually sell for. This is a very wide statement and some appraisals will, of course, be closer to the actual value of the stone than will others.

Appraisals cost money and if you are good enough to sell the qualities of the stone after a little bit of practice, your own word and your own peace of mind will be more valid than a piece of paper.  You are buying a piece of paper that someone else may not want to buy.

One should actually consider that one is buying the stone, not a piece of paper telling one how valuable the stone is. This could be compared to buying a car because the owner wrote an article about how exciting the car was. Needless to say one should base the actual purchase price on the vehicle itself.

Carat Weight in Grading Diamonds

The fourth and final C in evaluating a diamond for purchase is the carat weight. The term carat is a reference to biblical times when diamonds were compared against a carob bean because carob beans tend to have a uniform size and weight. One carob bean became the equivalent of one carat. The carat is still the primary unit of diamond weight used today. However, a carat is further broken down into 100 sub units called points. One point equals 1/100 of a carat.

When you buy diamonds it is often mentally economical to break the price of the stone down to a per carat basis. A rather crude example would be if you were buying drugs you would break the price of a kilo down into a gram weight to establish what you are actually paying per unit. The same is true in diamonds. You should divide the weight of the diamond into the price to get the carat weight.

The next thing to realize is that carat weights do not follow a linear progression in terms of price. There are certain man-made break points in diamond pricing. The first break is at .50 (1/2) of a carat. The second break is at 1 carat and then succeeding breaks occur at each carat thereafter.

These breaks, although arbitrary, are valid and a diamond that is .52 of a carat will cost considerably more than a diamond that is .44 of a carat. A diamond that is over 1 carat, say 1.03 carats, will cost considerably more per point or per carat than would a diamond that is .94. Because this break is so critical, one should always see a diamond weighed in front of one on a scale that has been verified by using an accurate unit of measure. In other words, put a one gram weight on the scale and see if it actually reads one gram.

Because of the price involved, these break points are quite important and one does not want to pay the price differential for over a 1 carat diamond for one that's actually a couple points under. When it comes time for resale, the next buyer will not be so generous in his consideration of the weight.

These price breaks are very substantial and are one of the few things in diamond selling that is not subjective. As such they are quite evident in all diamond sales. The difference per carat weight in a diamond that weighs from 1 to 2 carats may be as much as $1,000 per carat or more, on a 2 to 3 carat diamond. This holds true on a 3 to 4 carat diamond also. One could expect to pay not $1,000 more but $1,000 per carat more. This tends to increase as one gets into the heavier weights and good grades of stones because the stones become much rarer. It is much easier to find small good stones than it is to find large stones of the same quality.

Angles of the Cut

The first measurement to take is the degree of the angle from the table to the girdle of the stone. This is known as the top critical angle and should be 34.5 degrees. Underneath the girdle, the bottom angle from the girdle to the point of the stone is also a critical angle and should be cut at 40.75 degrees. A further measurement is that the girdle should be about 1% as thick as the diameter of the stone, although this is not quite as critical as the other measurements and can be judged by the eye after a bit of practice.

A stone which is not cut with the critical angles in the right degree, will either be shallow cut or deep cut and will not reflect the light back through the center of the stone (the table of the stone) with the same brilliance as a stone that is cut to the correct angles.

If the stone is shallow cut, the light will reflect off the edges of the stone but not through the middle. If it is cut too deeply, the center of the stone will appear to be dark and it is called "heavy." In the past some cutters cut the upper angles at a less than 30 degree cut. This spread cut helps hide deficiencies in a stone but makes the girdle angles sharp and likely to be broken or chipped and the stone is not as valuable as a normally cut stone.

If the correct tool for sizing angles is not available, one can estimate that if the table appears to be larger than it should, and the width to height (that is the depth spread ratio) is below 60%, one can assume that the critical crown angles are shallow.

It is possible to polish a diamond to a high degree to compensate for shallow or deep cut angles at first glance and make the stone appear to be more brilliant than it, in fact, is. If the stone is chosen for investment quality, a measurement of these angles is almost essential.

A Detailed Look into Diamond Cutting

An uncut diamond is normally sawn or split into two or more stones as decided by the diamond cutter. It just takes a simple error here to completely ruin a valuable stone and turn it into nothing but dust. Now you can understand the hypertension rate among diamond cutters and airport controllers.

Once a rough diamond is split, the diamond cutter then decides how the stone will be laid out and cut. This operation means that a certain portion of the diamond will be ground off and lost and so this cut plan becomes an important step in finishing the final stone.

The first step taken by the diamond cutter is to girdle the diamond. This process of girdling establishes the size of the stone and puts a "waste" on the stone. If a stone is poorly girdled, it will not appear completely round when viewed with the jeweler's loupe or microscope. A round brilliant cut stone should be perfectly round and symmetrical.

Other mistakes in girdling will produce flaws that manifest themselves as a razor thin girdle which is prone to chipping or breaking (even though diamonds are extremely hard, they are brittle and can be chipped or shattered in thin areas). A too thick girdle takes away from the brilliance and fire of a stone and indicates a poor job on the part of the diamond cutter.

A diamond cutter cuts (in a brilliant cut) 58 facets all done on exact angles in exact positions in order to let the diamond reflect as much light as is physically possible. The brilliant cut stone has 16 facets on top and 16 facets on the bottom that reflect the light and give the stone its cut. Each facet is cut on a unique angle and is exactly straight when viewed with other facets in order to maximize light reflection.

When you view a brilliant cut stone, around the table of the stone you'll see the kite and the topmain facets. These facets are the areas that allow the light to come through to the viewer. Beneath these you have eight star facets and then 16 upper girdle facets before you reach the girdle itself. Beneath the girdle you have an additional 16 lower girdle facets. All these ancillary facets contribute to the light reflection through the kite and top main facets and the table portion of the stone.

What is the advantage of the 58 facet brilliant cut stone? What does one expect to see when viewing a diamond? There are two qualities that make a diamond attractive to the eye. The first one is known as life and indicates the amount of light that is reflected back from the diamond to the viewer. The second quality is known as fire, which is an indication of the amount of refraction from the facets and split into colors as in a prism effect.

Besides the 58 facets, a number of other factors contribute to the perfectness of a brilliant cut stone. The stone's table should be 53% of the area of the stone. While the ratio between the depth of the stone or the length of the stone if you view it from the side, to the spread of the stone which is the maximum diameter of the girdle, this ratio should be 60% depth to spread.

The angles on a stone must be cut exactly to critical angles. Any deviation will produce a less than perfect reflection of the light waves entering the stone. A jeweler will have special gauges to measure these angles. These gauges are available but they are expensive. Or one can buy a loupe that is marked with angle markings. When angles are viewed through this loupe, they can be accurately measured.

Cut: The Third C in Rating

Bear in mind also that a good diamond cutter can cut a colored stone in order to make it appear whiter than it is WHEN THE STONE IS MOUNTED by doing a shallower cut that's more spread on the point where the facets come together. This will make the stone appear less yellow, again only after it's mounted. This is another reason one should never judge a stone that is in a mounting of any sort.

The cut of a brilliant diamond may be the most singular important consideration in buying a stone within a set price range. Unless one is an expert and feels his knowledge is good enough to override general public consideration, there is only one cut to consider and that is the brilliant cut. Brilliant cut is a modern cut that is a completely round stone designed with 58 facets to maximize light reflection and fire within a diamond.

There are a lot of stones still around which have what is known as a European cut. This cut was done in the 1920's and before and does not compare in value to the modern brilliant cut. The old cut or European cut stones were cut before exact ratios and angles were established and understood by the gem cutting society and, as such, do not maximize the reflecting and refraction qualities of the stone. European cut stones such as those purchased at pawn shops and estate sales, are much harder to resell and do not offer the liquidity of a brilliant cut diamond.

There are other popular modern cuts such as the marquise, the oval and the pear which attract some buyers when designed for jewelry, due to their unique appearance. These cuts do not reflect as well as the brilliant cut and are rarely seen in investment quality jewelry.  Again, the fancier cuts will be on the average much harder to sell (definitely harder to sell to a dealer) than is the round brilliant cut stone.

Fancy cut diamonds have fewer angles cut to what is known as the critical angle and, as such, cannot be as brilliant as a round cut stone. The fancier a stone is, the more it differs from a brilliant cut, the greater the loss in light reflection will be.

Another phenomena to be aware of in fancy cut stones such as pear shapes or marquise shapes, is something called the bow tie effect.  This is a dark, cloudy area across the upper portion of the table on these stones. It is a quality inherent in the cutting and looks like a cloudy bow tie across the reflecting portion of the table. This obviously lowers the value of the stone considerably and, if one is thinking about a fancy cut stone, this effect should be taken into consideration.

Fancy cut stones have only two bottom facets as opposed to the eight found in round cut stones to reflect the light back. While they still may appear to be fairly brilliant, the refraction, the fire of the stone, will suffer critically. This loss progresses from the marquise cut through the straight cuts such as the emerald cut diamond. These straight cut stones suffer a great light and fire loss and are not nearly as valuable as the same stone would be cut in a brilliant cut.

Source: Video Vindicator, 1992, BBS.

Diamond Color Rating System

The GIA color rating system has been established using alphabetical nomenclature. The stones are rated from pure (totally colorless) down through a sliding scale to yellow, which is the least valuable stone. The GIA color rating system starts with the letter D and progresses through the alphabet as shown below to Z, which would be very yellow.

• D E F : Colorless
• G H I J : Near Colorless
• K L : Faint
• M : Yellow-White
• N O : Very Light Yellow
• P : Light Yellow
• Q : Yellow
• R S T U : Light
• V : Yellow or Fancy
• W : Fancy
• X Y Z : Yellow

After the letter Z, indicators are used to suggest the stone is more valuable because of its hue; i.e., a fancy color. As you can see from the above chart, D, E and F stones are considered completely colorless. G, H, I and J are near colorless stones and take a lot of practice for the amateur to see any color at all, while after J the stones begin to pick up a small tint of yellow that is noticeable to practiced gemologists.

To correctly grade a gemstone, the stone must be loose, not in a setting, should be on a perfectly white background, should have a white gem quality temperature light and should be viewed from the rear of the stone. In other words, the stone should be upside down Iying on its table. It is also extremely helpful to have stones of known color grades nearby for active comparison.

Never attempt to judge the color of a diamond when it is set in any kind of setting, be it earring, ring, or whatever as it is strictly impossible to judge the color of a mounted stone that is taking on hues and tints from the mounting itself.

Color is a very important consideration in choosing investment quality diamonds and, in fact, the differences in large sizes such as one carat and over from a D to an E color (again these are the top rated stones and are both considered colorless to the naked eye) can be double the price between these two grades.

Color in Diamond Grading

The second C used in rating diamonds is color. Diamonds come in literally every color in the rainbow and while a few specialty colored diamonds are extremely valuable because of their deep hues and unique color characteristics, these are the exceptions rather than the rule. In general, the closer a stone is to possessing no color, that is, to being colorless, the more the stone is worth.

In order to establish the transparency or lack of color in a diamond, the loose stone is placed on a pure white background under a white light. There are special lights sold with adjusted color temperatures for this viewing or some people prefer to use the soft north sunlight when trying to view the color of a diamond.

In color rating as in clarity rating, the dazzling brilliance and fire of a diamond are the viewer's natural enemy. They will confuse the eye and care must be exercised to not become jaded or tricked, but rather to view each characteristic individually and in comparison to other stones or photographs of stones.

The most accepted color grading system is that again of the GIA.  Their system is judged by using a series of master stones sold by the GIA or their representatives that establish hues and tints and can be laid side by side with the stone in question in order to view how white the stone really is.

If at all possible, it is certainly worth one's time to visit a large gem dealer with the intent or apparent intent of purchasing a good-sized stone and ask to see a master set and become used to judging the color on several stones until you have a feel for the concept of whiteness, transparency and hues.

Technology has now produced a practical and inexpensive (comparatively) method of possessing your own diamond master stones. These stones are available in all colors D through Z on the GIA scale and are excellent to have on hand to compare with any other stone you may be considering purchasing in order to rate the new stone. These stones are color correct because they're created to be exactly the color they're supposed to be.

How can this be cheap? The stones are not diamonds. They're CZ's, cubic zirconium. These CZ stones look like diamonds, act like diamonds, smell like diamonds and can be matched to a real diamond in order to compare colors with an extreme degree of accuracy.

There's also a device known as a color meter which electronically measures the color or lack of color in a stone. This meter is quite accurate although fairly hard to come by unless one is a member of the Gemological Institute of America.

Source: Video Vindicator, 1992, BBS.

Clarity: The First C of Diamond Grading

A flawless stone simply means that no flaw can be found even with the use of a 10x jeweler's loupe or 10x microscope. As you go down the scale, the VVS-1 may have one very small inclusion, generally not in the table (which will be covered later) portion of the diamond but possibly on the edge. Again, this flaw is seen only from the front and only on using 10x magnification. It should not be visible to the naked eye.

As we get into VVS-2, there may be more than one flaw with magnification but they're still extremely small. One small inclusion may be in the table area of the diamond.

Into the VS grades, the flaws become larger and more prominent than their VVS cousins. VS2 may have larger flaws or a number of small spots possibly located in the table of the diamond that group together and are almost considered one flaw. They are generally in the same area.

When we talk about 10x magnification, this can be in the form of a jeweler's loupe which is a fairly inexpensive must-have item for anyone serious about stones or a step upward which is the two eyepiece (stereo) microscope, which many jewelers will have on the premises and will let one borrow when perusing their stones.

It is wise to always make sure that the magnification device employed is 1Ox. This is the standard and any variation from this will affect the rating of the stone to a great degree.

Note that flawless VVS and VS rated stones are rated when looking at the stone right side up with a 1Ox magnification device. If you pick up a stone that supposedly falls under one of these ratings and you can see inclusions with the naked eye, you're not looking at a stone that is properly rated.

An Sl-1 rated stone will have inclusions that are very obvious under 1Ox magnification, but should still be borderline visible or not visible when viewed with the naked eye. The Sl-1 stone may have these borderline visible, small dots or inclusions in the table or edge of the stone. An Sl-2 rating will have larger flaws and probably more than one. These will be easily visible to the naked eye.

In the I grades, the stones can be considered either quite flawed or imperfect. Flaws are probably inside the table. There may be flaws of more than one variety, clouds, cracks or groups of black or white carbon spots will be visible. This last group of stones obviously are the least valuable and the least interesting for anyone trying to convert from cash to gems and back again.

Looking backward we can infer several things, the first of which being if you can spot a number of inclusions without the use of magnification device, the stone is going to be graded 1, whether I-1, I-2 or I-3 is open to some subjective effort, but it will be an I rated stone.

If you can't find flaws with your eye alone but they do become visible when using a loupe, one can assume that the stone is an Sl rated stone.

The differentiation between an S stone and a VS stone is that in a VS stone inclusions may not be seen extremely clearly even with the loupe. If the stone is turned over and laid on the flat front part (the face of the stone - this is the table) and one views down from the back of the stone where all the facets come to a point and the flaws are more readily seen here, one can assume it is a VS-2 or above rated stone.

Note this viewing is done under white light and with the stone loose.  It is very difficult to judge any of the 4 C's when the stone is mounted. Mounted stones are not generally considered for investment grade purchases. The stone should be loose and one should be able to turn it freely.

Source: Video Vindicator, 1992, BBS.

How Diamonds are Graded

When a jeweler or professional goes to buy a stone there are several things he will evaluate in order. Generally the stone is graded using the four C's of diamond grading. These are:

1. Clarity
2. Color
3. Cut
4. Carat

There are established methods and models for grading stones and one could reasonably expect to take a stone of a certain grade from one professional to another and come out with a similar rating. One should also remember this grading is subjective and there will be times when two accredited gemologists will give a different rating, possibly affecting the stone's value, by hundreds or thousands of dollars to the very same stone. It is wise to be able to at least make a good amateur estimate of the various rating points on your own instead of having to blindly depend on someone you may not know.

The first C is clarity. This is not the most important but is generally the first item looked at in a stone to be rated. Clarity does not refer to the concept of "being clear" with reference to a diamond. Clarity refers to the purity of the stone and lack of visible defects.

These defects or flaws or as they are properly known, inclusions, may manifest themselves as dark, black carbon spots, white carbon spots, small cracks, "clouds", feathers, or other areas of visible diffusion within a diamond or on the surface of the stone itself.

A truly flawless stone, one without any spots, cracks or inclusions, is very rare and extremely valuable. One can expect to find some flaws in most stones. The type of flaws, size of flaws, and location will have an effect upon the stone's value. It is important to learn how to judge a stone for clarity.

The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has established a rating system for expressing the clarity of a particular stone. This rating system is based on the use of initials and numbers and goes on a one to 10 oriented system wherein 10 would be the best stone and 1 would be the worst stone.

This system is not expressed in simple numbers but with words and initials to further establish the rating scale. The scale is as follows:

• 10 - Flawless - no blemishes can be found.
• 9 - VVS-1 - no flaws inside the table. Possible very small internal flaws outside the table. If any external flaws are present, must be very minor.
• 8 - VVS-2 - very difficult to see flaws with 1 0x magnification power employed.
• 7 - VS -1 - flaws readily seen using 1 0x glass but almost impossible to see when the stone is viewed from from the back.
• 6 - VS - 2 - the back looking down through the stone.
• 5 - Sl - 1 - flaws unable to be seen with the naked eyes but quite apparent using 1 0x magnification.
• 4 - Sl - 2 - inclusion may include carbon spots or clouds or feathers underneath the table or larger flaws outside of the table.
• 3-1 - I- 1 to 3 - this is the least valuable group. They are heavily flawed and the flaws can be determined with the naked eye. There are going to be internal flaws inside the table, maybe clouds, groups of carbon spots, feathers and/or cracks that can be seen with the eye.

Legend:
VVS - Very, very, slightly imperfect
VS - Very slightly imperfect
Sl - Slightly imperfect
I - Imperfect

Source: Video Vindicator, 1992, BBS.

Diamonds: The Inside Story

Gemstones, and in particular diamonds, are interesting subjects because of several factors:

1. Their value is subjective, although the wholesale prices are supported by the De Beers family and the price table is maintained through advertising and withholding of stones. Individual stones are graded on a subjective basis and as such, the values increase or decrease abruptly if a further grading session disagrees with the original.
2. Gems offer a fairly stable method of converting large amounts of cash into small, liquid, easily transported possessions.
3. It is still possible to purchase gems in some areas of the world for substantially less money than in the United States and they can and are smuggled into the country for profit.
4. Synthetic gemstone manufacture and faux substitutions open an area of easy-to-maneuver and hard to detect high ticket fraud.

The gem and particularly diamond industry operates in a knowledge vacuum. There are a number of interesting facets, no pun intended, of buying, selling and scanning jewels that people in the jewelry business prefer not to let the public become aware of. If you are considering purchasing, investing in, or otherwise becoming involved with any sort of gem quality crystal, there are a number of things you can do to protect your investment.

For thousands of years diamonds have been a form of decoration, currency and investment medium. Diamonds have risen in price over the years fairly consistently with inflation. At some points investment in the right stone would have returned a much better percentage than similar amounts of stocks, bonds or gold. On the other hand, an investment in the wrong thing or an investment made blindly because of lack of knowledge, can and in many cases has caused the buyer to actually lose money.

Remember, diamonds are normally sold on a retail basis. This is where you, the consumer, buy most stones. As one purchases stones of a higher quality and larger weight, stones that are designed for investment purposes rather than ornamentation, it is possible to actually buy at or near wholesale prices. When one goes to sell the stone, if one simply walks into a jeweler or New York-type diamond seller, one expects to lose from the retail price the stone may have been purchased at.

A number of factors establish the value of a diamond, one of which is the size of the stone. There are certain levels where the value of a high grade stone jumps appreciably simply because the stone is over this weight. In general, a large high-rated stone is worth logarithmically more than a number of small stones equaling the larger stone's weight. It is, as one would expect, considerably harder to find flawless or near flawless large stones.

Source: Video Vindicator, 1992, BBS.