What Differentiates a Gem From Any Other Stone?
Some of the most bizarre, and I dare say funny, incidents take place in the gemstones market. I remember this enterprising businessman who once bought a few sapphires and rubies at an auction which displayed, with each stone, a certification confirming each stone as an original. He put a few hundred dollars into it, just to find out, to his dismay, that if sold, they wouldn’t even fetch him a Friday night dinner. He couldn’t understand what went wrong. They were not fakes; the flaw was in his perception – that every original stone is a gem. So the question is – what differentiates a gem from any other stone?
Attributes and Characteristics That Make Gemstones Objects of Desire
Experienced jewelers would generally give three parameters - durability, beauty and rarity.
If a stone has so many cracks that the moment someone tried to set it into a piece of jewelry it breaks into two pieces, what use of it? The very reason why jewelry is cherished and prized so much is because it can be handed over and preserved through generations without any affect on the quality. That is why they say diamonds are forever.
As for the beauty, that is exactly what allures anyone. If the stone doesn’t sparkle or scintillate us with its lovely colors, why would we even want to possess it?
Finally, if a gemstone is beautiful and durable, and rare too, then everyone will want it but everyone will not have it. Thus it will cost more. So these are the things that make a gem expensive and worth having. However, these are not all.
Consider the Tsavorite, a member of the Garnet family of gems. This little baby, on an average, is just as durable and just as rare, if not more, as an emerald. In terms of beauty, some would say it even surpasses the best of emeralds. Yet it costs hardly one-tenth as much as an average Emerald. How come? What the Tsavorite lacks is put by many as the snob appeal or cachet. People don’t really dream of owning and showing off a Tsavorite as they do of an Emerald. Most people don’t even know what a Tsavorite is, simply because it was discovered just a few decades ago. So it’s again the question of the invisible hand, the play of the forces of demand and supply. May be people will become more knowledgeable in the years to come, and then gems like the Tsavorite will be more expensive than the emerald.New stones are being discovered as we speak, awareness among the common customers is increasing day by day. With this trend, who knows, Tourmalines, Spinels and Tsavorites might be the desired stones this century.
So, all that being said, the important thing to learn here is that no matter what kind of a gem you choose, the key is in understanding, knowing and appreciating the quality of a gem. After all, what you seek is long-lasting beauty!
