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Diamonds
- Minerals are crystals
The earliest forms of jewelry were items that early humans found naturally, such as shells or bits of bones. Early gravesites have also revealed that pre-historic man buried his dead with flowers and
- Marie Louis Diadem
There were a few benefits to marrying the Emperor Napoleon, if you loved jewelry, that is! The Marie-Louise diadem, now part of the Smithsonian Collection, was a wedding gift from Napoleon I to his
- Marie Antoinette Earrings
There's no more fascinating subject in history than the doomed French Queen Marie Antoinette. Much maligned by history (she never said
- Other
The appeal of diamonds and other precious gems has endured for eons. They confer on the wearer a feeling of beauty, value, status. We are drawn to them and we all have our personal favorites.
- National gem collection
planet. One of the more spectacular collections is the collection of gems in the Museum of Natural History. There you can see wonderful crystals and minerals in their natural form, as well as some of
- Napoleon Diamond Necklace
One of the most spectacular all-diamond pieces of jewelry in the Smithsonian Insitution is the Napoleon necklace. Thought to have originally been owned by Catherine the Great of Russia, it was
- Hooker emerald
There's something incredibly mysterious about the largest emeralds. It's one of the rarest of gemstones, unattainable for most of us, at least in a good-quality stone. This magnificent 75.57-carat
- Hindu lore rubies
Rubies are a type of corundum, a rare mineral made up of densely packed aluminum and oxygen atoms, which are normally colorless. When other atoms are substituted for a few of the aluminum ones,
- Heat conduction
meaning they reduce the flow of electricity. Blue diamonds owe their semi-conductive property to boron impurities, which act as a doping agent and cause p-type semiconductor behavior. Diamonds appear
- Industrial vs gem quality diamonds
ancient times, and is the source of its name. However, there have been synthetic diamonds created which are even harder. The hardest natural diamonds in the world are diamonds from the New England
- How diamonds made
Diamonds form between 75-120 miles below the earth's surface. According to geologists the first delivery of diamonds was somewhere around 2.5 billion years ago and the most recent was 45 million
- Hope Diamond
Is there anyone who hasn't at least heard of the famous Hope Diamond? Many people are surprised when they first learn that this famous stone isn't a clear diamond, but instead is a brilliant blue
- Palaeolithic age
As a species, we love to adorn ourselves with jewelry, makeup, hair accessories. We do it now to enhance our looks, to attract a mate and because it just makes us feel good about ourselves. Some
- Spanish Inquisition Necklace
One doesn't normally associate beautiful jewelry with the time of the Spanish Inquisition. But in the Smithsonian Institution's collection of gems, there is an exquisite necklace of diamonds and
- Smithsonian Collection
Some of the world's most spectacular diamonds and other gems are located in the National Gem Collection in the Museum of Natural History in Smithsonian Collection in Washington, D.C. In the
- Shapes
The cut of a diamond refers to the way the stone is shaped and polished, how the facets are arranged and how deep or shallow it's cut. There are various cuts of diamonds that refer to that, many of
- Why are most minerals not popular as gems?
There are millions of minerals that exist on the earth, but few of them are prized as gems and used for adornment. Many of them aren't in colors that are usually highly prized for jewelry. Or they're
- Victoria Transvaal Diamond
The Victoria-Transvaal is a 67.89-carat, brownish-yellow pear shaped stone. It was cut from a 240-carat crystal that was found in the Transvaal, South Africa. The first cutting produced a 75-carat
- Sri Lanka
southern tip of India. This pear-shaped bit of tropical paradise, about the size of Sicily, is a tourist's delight offering British teahouses, rubber plantations, and gem mines. Marco Polo wrote of
- Quartz 2
could be found. The Greeks had originally named quartz, krystallos, the word for ice, but this soon came to mean any crystal. In China's Ming Dynasty, quartz often showed up as stone in jewelry work.
- Quartz
While quartz is the most plentiful mineral on earth, it also provides endless fascination and beauty for experts and casual observers alike. It is found in nearly every geological environment and is
- Portuguese diamond
There's something so exciting about these incredibly large and perfect stones. Sometimes they have well-documented histories and we know where they came from and who owned them and when. But others
- Ruby and Sapphire
It's hard to imagine that a mineral with a name as mundane as corundum yields gems as exquisite as the ruby and sapphire, or even that these two stones, so different in color and mystique, are
- Royalty diamonds
When did diamonds first become recognized as precious stones and used for jewelry? The earliest reference to them has been found in a Sanskrit document dated around 300 BCE. They were associated with
- Rose Quartz
Who doesn't love rose quartz in all its varying hues of pink? Rose quartz takes its name from the flower because of its translucent and delicate pink color caused by traces of iron, manganese or
- Citrine
gemstone, citrine is actually somewhat rare in nature. Citrine is one of the most affordable gemstones, thanks to the durability and availability of this golden quartz. Named from the French name for
- Certified diamond
appraisal, although the certification is part of any appraisal. Many diamonds look the same, but not all of them are going to be of the quality you might like. Diamond certification is the written
- Care of diamonds
Diamonds are durable and strong, but should be cared for as though they were fine breakable china or more fragile gems. They can chip or scratch if you're not careful, and they can get quite dirty
- Colors of gems
Gems come in every color of the spectrum. While sapphires, rubies and emeralds are what come to mind first when one thinks of a colored gem, there are so many other beautiful colored gemstones to
- Color
When it comes to the 4Cs of diamonds, color, or lack of it, is an especially important characteristic. Diamonds are given letter grades to denote the level of color, starting with the letter D for a
- Clarity
Diamond clarity is one the 4Cs of diamond qualities. It refers to any flaws, or inclusions in the diamond, and how visible or detectable they are. Inclusions can be foreign substances, or minute
- Beryl
The beryl is the family of crystal that creates emeralds and aquamarines, when its color is green or blue-green, respectively. Red beryl is bixbite or red emerald or scarlet emerald, pink beryl is
- Amethyst
from the Greek A (not) and methuskein (
- American Topaz
The world's largest cut topaz, called the American Topaz, resides at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. A 172-faceted topaz weighing 22,892.50 carats (5785 kg), it's the largest cut
- Carats
Many people equate the term carat with the size of a diamond, and as carat size increases, so will the carat weight. But the operative word there is weight. Carat refers to the weight of a diamond
- Blue Heart Diamond
There is a spectacular diamond in the Smithsonian Collection called the Blue Heart Diamond. Fans of the movie Titanic might think the
- Beryl colors
As much as we love diamonds, we're also in love with colored stones and gems like aquamarines and morganite, which can range from peach to lavender in color, are becoming more and more prevalent in
- Common and uncommon gemstones
Gemstones quite literally can take our breath away when we see them. Who hasn't seen a beautiful diamond or sapphire ring and exclaimed over it? Is it only their beauty that makes them so valuable?
- Gachala emerald
more than 3,500 years ago for the Pharaohs, this precious green stone also has been worshipped by the ancient Incas and Aztecs, the Indian Maharajas and Maharanis, and kings, queens and other royals
- Fluorescence
We're all familiar with the 4Cs of diamonds - cut, color, clarity and carat weight. But diamonds also possess a quality called fluorescence that's part of the evaluation and assessment of a diamond.
- Fire
The term fire is commonly used to describe a diamond, but what does it refer to? The ancient Greeks thought that fire in a diamond symbolized the eternal flame of love. Fire in a diamond is the
- Gem cutting - how it has changed over the years (50% of the original rough diamond is lost during the
How does a lump of mineral or crystal become a dazzling diamond, ruby or sapphire? It's an amazing process called gem cutting or lapidary and makes all the difference in the final value of the stone.
- Gemstones are mineral crystals
What specifically are gems and gemstones? We know some of the most common ones - emeralds, rubies, sapphires and diamonds. But what exactly are they, how are they made and why we do we prize them so
- Garnet
garnet lantern to safely steer his Ark through the darkness of the night and the great flood. Garnets are found in jewelry from ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman eras. Many courageous discoverers and
- Diamond cutting styles
Our love of diamonds and admiration of their fire and brilliance has given rise to many different cuts of diamonds. While we still see some of the earliest styles of diamond cuts - such as the round
- Couples diamond
The smart groom-to-be does his research before buying his fiancée a diamond ring! There are more styles and cuts to choose from than ever before. It's not enough to be educated about the four Cs of
- Corundum
Corundum is the form of mineral from which sapphires and rubies are derived. The mineral is naturally clear, but can have different colors when impurities are present. Transparent corundums are used
- Emerald
southern Egypt and were operated from before 1000 BC into the 1700's. This is a testament to the high value people have placed on emeralds for many centuries as the work was hard and dangerous and
- Diamond mines
the Middle Ages they were so rare and expensive that only royalty could afford diamonds. But in modern times even ordinary people are able to possess a few, thanks to the discovery of numerous
- Diamond durability
cut diamonds. Other gemstones are hard as well, but not nearly as hard as a diamond. Diamonds and other gemstones are measured by the Mohs scale. It runs from 10 (hardest) down to 1 (softest). It is
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