Precious stones are aesthetically appealing and extremely valuable as a form of beauty ornament. They are preferred for many reasons such as their majestic beauty, hypnotic colors, unique texture, strength, and durability. They are also seen as a symbol of emitting various types of energies and serving spiritual and astrological purposes. Similarly, gemstones are seen as a form of valuable jewelry and physical ornamentation that can be worth thousands of dollars.
Gemstones have a long history of being a valuable possession for the rich, mostly the kings and nobles of the past. They had them ornamented into their crowns, furniture, clothes, decoration items, jewelry, etc., and were treasured as a reflection of one’s wealth. Even today, precious stones are a unique market value and they are still high in demand.
However, due to high demand, some scammers try to fraud people by replacing fake gemstones with real ones. Unless you are a professional or experienced person, you won’t recognize the difference between the two. This lack of knowledge among the buyers makes it easy for such fraudsters to fool them.
Tips to tell them apart
There are some ways of distinguishing between real and fake gemstones. For instance:
- The appearance
The first thing a layperson can observe is the gemstone’s appearance. Check for any inclusions that you might find such as any impurity, bubbles, or something that doesn’t feel “natural”. One can take a magnifying glass with 10 times more magnification to check for inclusions. If there aren’t any, it might be a real one.
One good way is to check the shape of the growth patterns within the stone. If it is synthetic, they will be more rounded while the natural growth patterns should be angular or pointed.
- The surface and material
There is a method called the scratch method which comes quite handy for checking the authenticity of a gemstone. The real ones do not get scratched easily while the fake ones can be scratched even with sharp nails.
- The color and texture
The synthetic gemstones are mostly too bright in color as they have been imitated to produce a similar shade to that of a real one. However, imitation is never 100% the same. Also, the texture of the fake stones is mostly too smooth and fine as they do not have those naturally occurring impurities or chemicals that provide a unique texture to each stone over the years. Thus, a fake stone will be a poor imitation with an extra shiny, glossy, smooth surface, with unnatural color streaks.
- The design and shape
Precious stones are mostly irregular in shape when in raw form. But they are cut and polished to fit specific jewelry molds and other things. However, despite being worked on, the real stones would still maintain some roughness and irregularity in shape. But the fake ones are extremely polished and perfectly cut which is one of the biggest signs of doubting their authenticity.
- Transparency
The real stones maintain their transparency and do not block light. They can be checked under the sun and looked for various shades being displayed in the sunlight. This is because naturally occurring stones allow natural light rays to pass through them that is why they are believed to release energies. In contrast, a fake stone will be opaque or a hard-looking one with no chance of letting the light pass through it.
- Malleability
The malleability of a stone can be checked through the damage test. This test checks the hardness, streak, and cleavage of the stone.
The hardness is measured through the Moh’s test which observes the surface of the material by mostly scratching it. The real ones do not get scratched easily.
The streak is usually observed by dragging the stone against a ceramic plate for the perfect color line check.
Finally, the cleavage check is done to see how the crystal or the stone breaks. If it crumbles into powdered form, it is considered fake. The real one must not be able to easily break, its shape might get distorted, but shouldn’t completely crumble or shatter into bits.
Having a gemstone can have an astrological, spiritual, and monetary value. But it is important to check their credibility before possessing one worth a huge sum of money. Thus, the above-mentioned tips can help a person check the authenticity of a stone before buying it.
