Usually, if you want to become a pro in the gemstones you have to make a long way of study and practice. To understand the gemstones, you start study a lot of things, that might seem you quite boring: the crystallization systems, MOH, refractive index, birefringence, crystal axes, special gravity, chemical, physical properties, hue, saturation etc... When you open gemstones’ guide, I believe that last thing you want to see are the terms and definitions that are needed to be explained and studied. I promised to you to make it easier for you to understand, so I will keep my word.
Let’s say you want to buy the ruby for your ring, the first thing you do is to google it, or to look for a ruby at eBay or at Amazon. Now, what do you see? A lot of rubies starting from few dollars and up to hundreds of thousands $ per carat. I believe your next thought is what the… is going on here??? I know that ruby is a precious stone. How could it cost less than lunch at McDonalds?
Ok. Let’s start. How can we determine that the precious stone like ruby, emerald or sapphire is cheap or expensive? There are 3 things we are looking for:
1.The size. To be more correct, the weight in carats. The bigger is the weight, the higher is the price per carat.
2.The transparence. The clarity. The more transparent is the gemstone, the higher is the price.
3.The color. The richer the color, the higher is the price.