In late 2009, the Accredited Gemologists Association called attention to “ruby†products being sold as natural ruby in spite of the presence of a considerable amount of lead-glass component in the stones. In a hidden…
Featured ArticlesIt was only in the early 1980s when scientists like the well-known mineralogist and gemologist George Bosshart demonstrated the usefulness of spectrometers in gemstone analysis. Surprisingly enough, only a few laboratories jumped on the train…
Featured ArticlesIn general, the market is feeling positive as buyers are slowly returning to the marketplace. Stores seem to be filling holes in the middle range of diamonds replacing the ones they sold over Christmas. The…
Diamond MarketThe Tucson Gem Shows are widely regarded as a reliable indicator of the strength of the colored stone industry. In all the years that this author has attended, I cannot recall another year where so…
News ArchiveJust over a year ago, in the Gem Market News, we wrote about the sharp decline in gold and platinum prices for the trends page. In a 30-day period from July 15, 2008 to August…
Market TrendsAn honest, upscale jeweler sends his appraiser friend the most recent password for accessing the GemGuide online. Not a big deal he thinks, as he has experienced numerous occasions with customers having copies of price…
News ArchiveThe beryl family has an interesting range of varieties (Figure-1), with the emerald tending to take ‘centre stage.’ Some evidence supporting this comes in the form of early synthetic emeralds in my teaching collection (Figure…
Featured ArticlesThe gem industry experienced significant hardship during the year as cautious consumers and tight credit from lenders combined to stifle trading at all levels of the market, thawing only slightly at end of the year…
Colored Stone MarketThe holiday season got off to a decent start in the U.S with Black Friday sales rising 0.5% to $10.66 billion but analysts were still disappointed after predicting increases similar to what we saw in…
Diamond MarketABSTRACT This article looks at gemology from two different, but complimentary perspectives, drawing the following conclusions: Scientific gemology needs experimentation in addition to observation. Unassailable source material is the foundation upon which that experimentation should be based…
Featured Articles