More news on cremation diamonds. “Dead people’s ashes cannot be exhumed to make jewelry, a church court has ruled, after a grieving widow wished to extract a teaspoonful of her late husband’s in order to create a ring. In one … Continued
Resale value vs. appraisal values. One of the most common questions I get as an appraiser is why resale values, meaning the prices people can get for their jewelry, are so different from the values seen on appraisal reports. It’s … Continued
Fancy clarity In the gemstone world, clarity generally refers to inclusions or other impurities in a stone, and inclusions are normally counted as a bad thing. Gems are supposed to be pure as snowflakes and normally the price goes down … Continued
Lost wax casting meets the computer age. A fair fraction of the jewelry you see is made by lost wax casting. An original is made of wax, that’s encased in a plasterlike material known as investment. After it sets up … Continued
Like-kind and quality. Most jewelry insurance policies are designed to make a customer whole again in the case of a loss. They’re agreeing to replace a lost or destroyed item with another of “Like-kind and quality”. What that means … Continued
Is a high insurance appraisal evidence of a bargain? This is the heart of the appraisal question for a lot of new purchase clients. They bought a diamond or piece of jewelry, they paid a lot of money for it, … Continued
Welo opals. It’s really pretty unusual for a major new gemstone to appear on the market. I only remember a couple in 40 years of this business. Tanzanite comes to mind. Cheap Chinese pearls is another. It’s easy to forget … Continued
Why Gemprint? Gemprint is a system for tracking individual diamonds. You may have seen them featured on CSI or Law&Order. Their depictions aren’t entirely accurate, as tends to be the case with TV shows, but they get the concept right. … Continued
The famed Argyle diamond mine is about to close. Famed more for the fistful of coveted pink and red gems it yields each year than being a major producer of lower-quality stones, is being shuttered by Rio Tinto Group … Continued
WHY AREN’T SYNTHETIC DIAMONDS CHEAPER? I get questions about this often and thought I would present something of an answer. I wrote this several years ago for Pricescope.com. I’ll start with a common misunderstanding. Simulants are a different thing, and … Continued