How to check that the stones are real?

Gold and precious stones have always attracted people. They not only decorated them, but were also a reliable means of investment and preservation of capital, which often pushed dishonest traders into forgery and deception. Indian jeweler Mohammed Amir revealed some tips on how to recognize a fake and avoid buying a “pig in a poke” in a conversation with an RG correspondent. Amir is far from high fashion. His products are not shown on catwalks and are not offered to the richest people around the world. He creates his little masterpieces for ordinary people. Weddings, birthdays, anniversaries – he has gifts for every occasion and pocket. If you don’t know exactly where Amir’s store is, it will be difficult to find it, because the market where he works is very popular among tourists and is popularly nicknamed “Yashka”. There are so many jewelry shops here that it’s dizzying. There is not much jewelry in the window of his small store, but as he talks with the client, more and more luxury items appear from his hidden bins. He has even more precious stones. Different shapes, different quality and prices. Many clients come specifically for stones and order jewelry to match them. In India, do all jewelers do this, how do you do it? Do they put the worst things on display in the window, but keep the most interesting things in a case?Amir: No, it’s just that the store is small and the display cases can’t accommodate everything. Although we prefer not to display those more expensive products from a safety point of view. How long has your family been in the jewelry business?Amir: The origins date back to the arrival of the Mughals in India (XVI century – Author). But that’s how the family story goes. And so I can clearly say that for the last 300 years all my ancestors, including my father, grandfather, etc., were jewelers. Now I continue the business together with my brothers. Are you from some special caste or did it just happen that way?Amir: Yes, our caste is Sheikh-Lahori. Everyone who belongs to it is engaged in jewelry making. Please tell me what an ordinary person can do, i.e. not a jeweler, how to distinguish a good gemstone from a bad one?Amir: Firstly, if you are going to buy a stone or jewelry, always ask for a certificate. If the store is good, they will definitely present you with such a document. I have it for all products with precious stones. If it is not there and you still want to purchase jewelry, take a close look at the stone. Of course, this is not easy, but still, by holding it in the light, you can understand whether it is cloudy or transparent, whether there are chips and scratches, cracks, etc. The stone can also be weighed: real natural stone is always heavier than artificial stone. Are there many artificial stones in the Indian market?Amir: Yes, there are often fakes, so you need to be more careful. Moreover, you can be deceived not only when buying cheap jewelry, you can spend several thousand dollars and be left with nothing. Therefore, choose a safe place. What are “heated” stones?Amir: The stone is heated so that it matures faster and acquires a more saturated color. For example, all rubies sold in Delhi shops are “heated”. They are real, they will even give you a certificate for them, but they acquired their color artificially. There is a small proportion of Burmese rubies, they differ greatly from others in their dark red color and price. They are many times more expensive. Another category of stones is “processed”. For example, there is a real natural stone, but it has one small flaw – emptiness inside. Then it is cleaned and filled with tinted liquid glass. It hardens and the stone is ready. He is also real, but with nuance. Do Delhi shops sell products made from local stones or do you import them?Amir: Most of the stones are imported. Mostly African, and also brought from Southeast Asia. In India, stones are practically not mined. But are there still stones about which we can confidently say that they are from India?Amir: There are Kashmir topazes and emeralds. They are of very high quality and very expensive. You can rarely find them on the market. But semi-precious stones such as garnet, moonstone, black onyx, cat’s eye are produced mainly in India. Is it possible to determine the value of a stone by its cut?Amir: The arithmetic is simple: the fewer faces, the cheaper the stone. For a diamond, for example, the maximum number of facets is 57. Such a stone will be expensive. Other stones also have their own cutting methods, since they all differ in their physical qualities. But this task can only be done by a specialist. It will be difficult for an ordinary person to immediately determine the type of cut, and he is unlikely to count the edges. (Laughs.) What stones are in fashion today?Amir: Of course, diamonds. They are always in fashion. For example, all our diamonds are African. Sapphires and rubies are also popular. Among semi-precious stones, blue topaz comes first. Do you have Russian diamonds? We mine a lot of diamonds in Yakutia. Amir: No, maybe they will appear in the future. What stones do you recommend buying in India?Amir: High quality. (Laughs.) What can you say about pearls?Amir: All freshwater pearls are from China. Seaborne is rare, it is much more expensive and is usually brought to order. Tell us about gold alloys. Which ones are used for jewelry in India?Amir: We add copper and silver to gold, so Indian gold is softer and easier to work. Are you doing tests?Amir: A government hallmark is required for gold items. It is applied with a laser and, in addition to the purity of the metal, the symbol of the company where the product was produced is also applied. Our symbol is a star. Other stores have their own symbols. Using it you can find out the history of jewelry according to the state register, where all jewelry companies are noted. Large ones, of course. If there is no such test, then it is better to think about whether to buy jewelry. But I put my own hallmark on silver items so as not to pay duty to the state. Silver is not very expensive, and it turns out to be unprofitable to pay extra for the sample. Do you also make silver items?Amir: Yes, but not very much. Are they also counterfeited or is it unprofitable?Amir: Yes, sure. We need to be more careful. Sometimes they can sell you a silver table set with only 50% silver, but they will charge you for the 875th standard. Here it is advisable to buy one spoon from the set and take it to the laboratory for analysis. But it will take 1-2 days. Therefore there is another way. If the spoon bends and does not break, it means there is a lot of silver in the product and the standard is high, and if it breaks, it means it is mixed in half with another metal. Is it true that to smooth out imperfections in jewelry, they are coated with rhodium?Amir: A layer of rhodium is usually applied to gold and silver jewelry not only to hide flaws in the jeweler’s work, but also to add shine to the jewelry. There is nothing wrong with this, but you need to remember that some people are allergic to it. How can you check a product for the presence of rhodium?Amir: Such products are immediately noticeable. They have an unnaturally bright shine. They don’t fade. You also need to remember that a fake may be hidden behind the rhodium layer. So they may slip you, for example, a copper or bronze ring instead of a gold one, and you will only find out about it a year later, when the rhodium layer is gradually erased. You have been in the jewelry business for many years, who are your customers?Amir: Our market is mainly visited by tourists from Russia and CIS countries. I even learned a little Russian specifically for them.

The ability to understand precious and semi-precious stones will help you feel more confident when buying jewelry, not succumb to the persuasion of a dubious seller who is trying to pass off an inexpensive stone as a more valuable one, and will allow you to choose a product that is suitable for your zodiac sign. Studying articles on gemology and personal experience will allow you to conduct an initial diagnosis of a pebble in jewelry, even without special devices.

Gemology – the science of precious stones and the quality of jewelry

If you don’t want to buy a piece of glass for the price of a diamond or jewelry stones that are similar in appearance but different in price, spend time studying the most popular stones in jewelry production: emerald, ruby, amber, sapphire, jade and others. The real stone in the product is always a good investment, because products decorated with gems do not lose value over the years, only becoming more expensive.

Color and shade

It is not so difficult to independently determine which stone is inserted into the jewelry. At the first stage, start from its color and shade: many stones belong to a certain color range. Thus, rubies can only be red, emeralds can only be green, but sapphires are not always only blue; there are also fancy specimens of yellow, garnet, red and even pink-orange or orange.

Many jewelers resort to refining natural crystals and this is completely legal. After going through special processing, the gem never ceases to be natural, but acquires a brighter, more playful color, and often a unique shade rarely found in nature. The properties and characteristics of such stones do not change, but the stone becomes visually much more attractive.

Too bright a shade of an inexpensive gem should alert you: in nature, such minerals are extremely rare and cost incredible amounts of money

To immediately understand such nuances, study special tables of minerals, precious and semi-precious stones, examine special sets of samples, take a closer look at jewelry in well-known jewelry boutiques – there the likelihood of running into a fake is minimal, branded companies value their reputation.

Shine and transparency of the stone

The tables used in jewelry activities have a detailed classification. One of these categories is transparency and shine of stones:

some of the gems simply must be transparent (peridot, green obsidian, zincite);
opaque sparkling ones include hematites (bloodstone or “glass head”), cobaltine, pyrite, cryptomelane;
translucent stones (brightly colored, patterned or uniform): rose quartz, chrysoprase, carnelian, chalcedony, opals and semi-opals, onyx, agate, moonstone, some obsidians;
opaque matte: used with treatment, variscite, turquoise, coral or pearls without treatment.

You can visually assess the transparency and presence/absence of shine of a stone in a piece of jewelry in fairly good lighting. remember, that amber It is often valued not for its transparency, but for its foreign inclusions; insects frozen in stone are especially valued.

stone hardness

The last stage of the primary diagnosis is to check the pebble for the hardness characteristic of this group of minerals. Along with the study of other characteristics, in this way you can verify the authenticity or counterfeit of stones.

So, it is enough to run a diamond or diamond across a mirror or glass to make sure that it is natural: even a blow with a hammer will not damage a natural stone, but a synthetic one will crumble into crumbs.

In a store, of course, it is unlikely that anyone will allow you to conduct such experiments: stones in jewelry are valuable for their cutting. But any specialized jewelry boutique for each precious stone used in the product has a certificate, in which, in addition to size, color, purity, sometimes the presence of defects, cutting method, the density of the stone is also indicated. The declared hardness must be characteristic of the group of minerals; the values can be checked in special tables.

Artificial or natural?

It can be very difficult to distinguish natural stones from professional fakes on your own, without special equipment. Each mineral has its own authentication test, which includes research into the above and some other characteristics. Even framing a gem in a product plays a role: for example, a diamond is set only in gold or platinum, and its lower part remains free, since in the jewelry industry it is believed that this way the stone will shine brighter.

Diamond Authenticity determined in two ways:

if you look at the stone from the side, the fake will not shine (it retains its shine only in frontal projection), and the natural gem will retain the depth of its shine;
Printed text cannot be read through a real diamond; cheap cubic zirconia, often passed off as “brilliants,” allows you to read letters without any problems.

For the most part, natural stones do not conduct heat well: when held in the hands they remain cold, while plastic and glass, even of excellent quality, quickly heat up from human heat.

Armed with a magnifying glass or microscope and knowing the characteristics of a certain stone, you can examine a suspicious gem for the presence of a characteristic pattern or, conversely, the absence of gas bubbles and veins. If you have a keen ear and have a reference stone, you can try to distinguish a fake by its sound: the pieces of glass ring thinner and higher.

And avoid massive specimens: large stones are the opposite of everything in the world and are definitely not available for free sale.

Professional appraisers and an instrumental gemological laboratory, of course, will tell you much more about the stone than you can determine for yourself by eye, hearing, or tactile sensations. In the case of synthesized stones, at the highest level of modern technology, even an experienced specialist. In addition to specialized diagnostics, even the possibility of extracting a particular type of mineral in a particular deposit is checked. Such examinations, naturally, take time and are expensive.