GEM NEWS: New Ebook on Gemstones "Playing Around with Minerals & Gemstones"

"Playing Around with Minerals and Gemstones"

This is a new eBook by Allano designed to arouse interest in the subject if previously ignored. Maybe you need a new hobby? Maybe you can scope the subject as a possible new career path? Cheers, Allano


Foto: Garnet bead jewelry mentioned in the text.

Facts and legends about topaz

Pablo Neruda, the Chilean Nobel Prize winning poet, wrote in his poem “Las Piedras del Cielo” , about his love of gems and minerals:
"Cuando se toca el topacio, el topacio te toca."

or, when you touch the topaz, the topaz touches you

A large topaz crystal is a wonderful thing to touch and handle, and look through. My pet coffee table crystal from Brazil measures 6 x 11 cm across the base and 8 cm high, bounded top and bottom by perfect basal cleavage planes. It is super transparent and colorless, heavy, and feels cold to touch and lick. What else can we learn from it?
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Gemstones from East Africa

The gemstone region of East Africa is exotic and relatively new compared to the long established gemstone regions of South East Asia and Brazil. It extends from the island of Madagascar (Malagasy) in the Indian Ocean to mainland Mozambique then northward through Tanzania and Kenya.

Notable developments have been the discovery and marketing of Tanzanite, a new vivid blue variety of the mineral zoisite, and likewise the promotion of the emerald green variety of grossular garnet, called Tsavorite, from localities in Kenya and Tanzania. Both these new gemstones have limited production and so command high prices. These gems are the icing on the cake. Many more gemstones are available from this little frequented region.
Foto: Watermelon tourmaline crystal
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Gem Testing -- What's for real?

The primary objective of gem testing is identification of the gem species. A red gemstone may be a ruby, spinel, garnet, tourmaline, CZ or paste etc. Stage two is to ascertain whether it is manmade (yes or no). Stage 3 is whether it is a natural/synthetic stone that has been treated in some way to enhance its value, such as by heating, dying, fracture filling with glass or oils. Gem testing is lots of fun and keeps gemologists in a job. The difference in value of a good quality 10 carat natural ruby and a synthetic one could be $20,000.

Gemstone enthusiasts should always carry about a small Gem Testing Kit which takes up little space but is very useful. Mine is contained within an old Drum tobacco tin, milde shag it says, and it measures ca 13.5 x 7.5 cm and 2.5 cm thick. What to put in it? It is amazing what you can squeeze into such a small space. I shall list what I have:
A loupe, having both 10 & 20X magnification. A Chelsea color filter. A homemade dichroscope 2.5 cm long made from a microscope lens and calcite rhomb. A small Rutland polariscope. Three light sources, including a tungsten incandescent pen light; a Pen light with white and blue LED; penlight with white LED and red and UV blue laser light. A pen with steel scratching point at one end and strong neodymium magnet at the other. Two gem tweezers and a length of string plus several needles and a hat pin. How to use any or all of this gear? This is explained in my Helium articles on gem testing listed in the RHS column. Why not start with "How to identify a loose gemstone"

Useful links to various gem and gemology websites including Gem Testing Labs and Gem Schools is contained at the GemologyOnLine website.

Gemstones as an Investment

The price of gold has reached over $1800 per ounce and has now dropped back into the $1700s. Has it peaked I wonder? News of the EU economy is bleak, generally confirming the widespread "stuffed" viewpoint. The question arises how should we more safely preserve our wealth? Having a diversified portfolio is considered wise, by owning diversified stocks, bonds, fixed interest deposits, diversified real estate, cash and why not some GEMSTONES?

A few choice diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, alexandrites and tanzanites can easily take care of $100,000 or even a million when set in jewelry, and that's just for starters. Gemstones represent the most concentrated form of wealth possible and have always been in demand for transporting wealth from A to B in times of political strife and war. This may not be your problem, but the value of a gemstone portfolio should comfortably outdo the inflation of your domestic currency.

Investment in gemstones is not for the novice. You have to know where to buy them and where to sell them, when need be. They must be genuine, hence an understanding of gem testing is required by the investor/collector. Valuable items must have their Certificate of Authenticity from a recognized Gem Testing Laboratory. Prized gemstones can be set in jewelry and enjoyed by the wearer. You can't make a dress out of a stock certificate or computer printout. Men too can join in the fun by investing in up-market rings with alexandrite and chrysoberyl cats eyes, star rubies and sapphires and so on. In my next post I shall list a range of reputable Online Gem Dealers so that you can get a feel of what gem material is on the market.