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What is my birthstone? If you cannot find the answers or information you seek, please submit your question here. We cannot answer them all, but we will do our best an post more questions and answers here as needed.
There are several different lists of birthstones. Following is a list of some of the most commonly accepted birthstones.
Pure gold is 24 karat gold. 50% gold would be 12 karat.
This table shows the percentage of gold in various alloys. The balance of the alloy is generally some mix of copper, silver and/or zinc. Nickel and palladium are used in white gold. What does .925 mean? Back to TopThis is another method of marking sterling silver and refers to the percentage of silver (92.5%) in sterling. The various colors of gold are created by varying the alloys used. Red has more copper, green has more silver, white has nickel or palladium added. The four C’s are Color, Cut, Clarity and Carat weight. For more info click here. A treatment is anything that is done to enhance the appearance and thus the value of a gemstone. It the treatment is disclosed, then you know what you are getting. Several treatments have been recognized as industry standards. Heating and/or irradiating of gems such as topaz, to change or improve color is common. Both are manmade stones. Created gemstones are chemically the same as the natural stone. Simulated stones are stones that are made of a material other than what it is attempting to copy. Cubic zirconium, lab grown corundum, lab grown spinel and glass are common materials used to simulate various gemstones. It the manmade stone is a good one, it can be very difficult to tell. A registered gemologist can test the stone and determine if it is real or not. If it seems too good to be true, it might be. The quality of the metal or the age of the piece of jewelry are not good indicators as stones can be replaced. What is stress fracturing in gold? Back to TopStress fracturing is a problem associated with white and lower karat golds. Golds of 10 kt or less are susceptible. White gold often has this problem. Stress fracturing is caused by a combination of the stresses created during the manufacturing process and chemicals that dissolve the alloy out of the gold which, of course, weakens it. This can cause an item to suddenly just break for no apparent reason. This is most often seen as a prong tip on a white gold setting that is suddenly missing. Chlorine is one chemical that can cause this problem. Never soak your fine jewelry is strong cleaners. This is most often not a problem with the quality of the metal. Whenever a precious metal is ground into a fine enough powder, that powder is black. If the handcream or makeup that you are using cantains any abrasive materials, this will rub on the piece of jewelry and create a black smudge. Many of the materials used to color makeup are mild abrasives. Quartz and corundum are names of minerals. Quite often the various colors of the same mineral are given different gemstone names. Sapphires and Rubies are both
corundum. If the corundum is red, then it is a ruby. If the corundum is any other color, then it is a sapphire. Sapphires come in many colors including pink, blue, yellow and
white (clear). Some different colors of quartz are Amethyst-purple, Citrine-yellow and Smoky-brown. There are names for some colors of Tourmaline. Rubellite is a dark
pink, often with purle highlights. Indicolite is blue. Emerald, Aquamarine, Morganite and Goshenite are green, blue to blue/green, pink and colorless (clear or white) Beryl. What is Ametrine? Back to TopAmetrine is a bicolor variety of quartz. Purple amethyst and yellow to brown citrine. Moisanite is another manmade stone. It was discovered in very small quatities in a meterite crater. It is being sold as a replacement for diamonds. Very hard and very brilliant. Although less expensive than a good diamond, it is still not cheap. The price of production may come down with time. Moissanite has a hardness of 9.25 on the Moh’s scale. Toughness is similar to that of a diamond. |
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