Asteriated synthetic rubies and sapphires were produced by Wiede’s Carbidwerk of Freyung, Germany, between the mid-1950s and the end of the 1970s. The rough crystals were grown slowly through a ...

The history of Baja California has been closely tied to the exploitation of pearls since the 16th century. Using rudimentary diving techniques for most of this era, European and Mexican entrepreneurs ...

As part of this service, a gold bracelet measuring 8 inches in circumference and 1.25 inches wide and weighing 41 g was recently examined in the Carlsbad laboratory (figure 1). It was submitted as 14K ...

Yellow is the most abundant color of natural fancy diamonds, yet they still represent a very small percentage of all diamonds. The first major source of yellow diamonds was found in the late 1860s in ...

The phrase “light performance” gets a lot of loose use in the diamond trade. Terms such as brightness, brilliance, fire and scintillation are defined by various organizations with both clear and vague ...

Explore diamond history, research, quality factors, and more in the GIA Gem Encyclopedia.

Part 4 of 5 in the series: Value Factors, Design, and Cut Quality of Colored Gemstones (Non-Diamond). This article digs deeper into cutters’ choices and explores additional factors used in the trade ...

ABOUT GIA An independent nonprofit organization, GIA (Gemological Institute of America), established in 1931, is recognized as the world’s foremost authority in gemology. GIA invented the famous 4Cs ...

Birthstones are a fun, popular and colorful introduction to the world of gemstones. They appeal to audiences around the world regardless of gender, age, nationality or religion. Birthstones carry ...

A synthetic gem material is one that is made in a laboratory, but which shares virtually all chemical, optical, and physical characteristics of its natural mineral counterpart, though in some cases, ...

After a couple of days learning about the igneous rocks in the area, it was time to test our luck at treasure hunting. We gathered buckets, shovels, and sieves from park headquarters for a small ...

Another way to measure a ring is to take a measurement of the inside and determine the finger size from a standard chart. The inside of the ring must be perfectly round for this to work.