People like precious gemstones for different reasons. Some store wealth in gems and precious metals, some wear then to display their wealth and their self-perceived status, some believe that wearing their birthstone will bring them health, wealth and happiness and others wear them because they look nice.
Valuable gemstones have always been sought after because of their value, but in older days, they were also prized for other reasons, such as being able to bestow good health. This belief persists among some peoples, but not a lot in the Developed World any more.
In the Developed World, most people wear precious stones for their beauty and to display status. In the East, people also wear precious gems to display status, but collect them because they do not traditionally have faith in banks.
And who could blame them in the light of the Developed World's recent experience with their financial banking crisis and the meteoric increase in the cost of gold? There is almost certainly a lesson for us all here.
Anyway, apart from precious metals, there are precious stones and the most expensive of them are: emeralds, diamonds, rubies and sapphires. The order of the stones in value relies on the quality.
Diamonds of regular quality are worth more than emeralds of regular quality, but high quality emeralds are worth more than high quality diamonds, because it is hard to find emeralds without lots of faults, which are also called 'inclusions'.
Diamonds come in all sorts of colours from clear to 'black'. Clear diamonds are what most people would want, but there are some very costly big coloured diamonds in yellow and blue.
The difficulty with gemstones is that their supply is closely controlled by cartels and governments, which keeps their price unnaturally high. Diamonds are the worst of the bunch in this regard.
De Beers controls a substantial proportion of the diamond market and was able to regulate prices for decades. The Argyle mine of Australia produces 7,000 kg of brown diamonds, which were by tradition considered worthless for the purposes of jewelry.
However, due to a clever advertising campaign, brown diamonds are now thought to be valuable in Australia, although clear diamonds are still preferred in the remainder of the world.
Emeralds are a gorgeous green gemstone, but it is very hard to purchase a good one. Many emeralds have been doctored to look more valuable than they truly are, but this is true of diamonds as well.
If you like red stones, then a ruby is for you. Ruby is a definition of the colour red and rubies can range from blood red crimson to pink, but in general, the deeper the red the better. However, not all red stones that are sold as rubies are rubies, but you might have predicted that
Sapphire is normally a beautiful deep blue, but may also be pale blue to pink. Sapphires come mostly from the East, like Thailand, Russia but even North Carolina in the USA.
If you are going to purchase any of these top gemstones, buy the best that you can afford, because you can pass them on to your children as an inheritance.
Valuable gemstones have always been sought after because of their value, but in older days, they were also prized for other reasons, such as being able to bestow good health. This belief persists among some peoples, but not a lot in the Developed World any more.
In the Developed World, most people wear precious stones for their beauty and to display status. In the East, people also wear precious gems to display status, but collect them because they do not traditionally have faith in banks.
And who could blame them in the light of the Developed World's recent experience with their financial banking crisis and the meteoric increase in the cost of gold? There is almost certainly a lesson for us all here.
Anyway, apart from precious metals, there are precious stones and the most expensive of them are: emeralds, diamonds, rubies and sapphires. The order of the stones in value relies on the quality.
Diamonds of regular quality are worth more than emeralds of regular quality, but high quality emeralds are worth more than high quality diamonds, because it is hard to find emeralds without lots of faults, which are also called 'inclusions'.
Diamonds come in all sorts of colours from clear to 'black'. Clear diamonds are what most people would want, but there are some very costly big coloured diamonds in yellow and blue.
The difficulty with gemstones is that their supply is closely controlled by cartels and governments, which keeps their price unnaturally high. Diamonds are the worst of the bunch in this regard.
De Beers controls a substantial proportion of the diamond market and was able to regulate prices for decades. The Argyle mine of Australia produces 7,000 kg of brown diamonds, which were by tradition considered worthless for the purposes of jewelry.
However, due to a clever advertising campaign, brown diamonds are now thought to be valuable in Australia, although clear diamonds are still preferred in the remainder of the world.
Emeralds are a gorgeous green gemstone, but it is very hard to purchase a good one. Many emeralds have been doctored to look more valuable than they truly are, but this is true of diamonds as well.
If you like red stones, then a ruby is for you. Ruby is a definition of the colour red and rubies can range from blood red crimson to pink, but in general, the deeper the red the better. However, not all red stones that are sold as rubies are rubies, but you might have predicted that
Sapphire is normally a beautiful deep blue, but may also be pale blue to pink. Sapphires come mostly from the East, like Thailand, Russia but even North Carolina in the USA.
If you are going to purchase any of these top gemstones, buy the best that you can afford, because you can pass them on to your children as an inheritance.
About the Author:
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a variety of topics, but is now concerned with Good Diamond Quality. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Jewellry but Watches.
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