Buying guides8 guides
Written for buyers who wire real money to dealers they have not met. Each guide sets out what the paperwork should say, what disclosure looks like and where the risk actually sits.
Gemstone certification, explained: what a laboratory report proves and what it never can
A dealer in Bangkok sends three photographs and a PDF, and the PDF is what you are really being asked to trust. Certified, in the coloured stone trade, means only that an independent house has looked at a stone and written down what it saw: the material, whether it grew underground or in a factory, what has been done to it since, and, where the extra fee was paid, which country the testers believe it came from.
Emerald oiling grades, explained
Nearly every emerald reaches the market with surface-reaching fissures, and nearly every one has had those fissures filled.
How to read a lab report
The document that arrives with a serious coloured stone is short, and much of it is of no consequence at all.
How insured shipping of loose stones works
A fine loose stone crosses borders in a parcel the size of a paperback, and it does so safely thousands of times a week.
Kashmir and Azad Kashmir sapphires
What is a classic Kashmir sapphire? One deposit, worked for about six years, a hundred and forty years ago.
Questions to ask a dealer before wiring money
The loose stone trade still runs on bank wires between people who have often never met.
Ruby origin: Burma and Mozambique
Two names anchor the modern ruby market.
Heat treatment in sapphire, and what disclosure should say
Most sapphire on the market has been heated.