IMITATION GEMS AND HOW TO DETECT THEM
The
art of imitating gems has reached a high degree of perfection, and
while the substitutes thus prepared have legitimate uses, the
temptation to palm them off on the unsuspecting for real gems, at or
near the price of the genuine, is often too strong to be resisted. It
becomes important, therefore, that every one purchasing precious stones
should be acquainted with the characteristics of the false as well as
of the real, and unless purchasing of a perfectly reliable dealer
should subject the offered stone to the most careful scrutiny.
Tourists are especially liable to deception of this sort, since their
purchases must be largely made of itinerant venders, with whom they are
not acquainted. The Persian turquois venders, knowing the liability of
some of their wares to fade, are accustomed to leave for parts unknown
as soon as their stock is disposed of, and gem-sellers of other nations
often exhibit similar propensities.
Emanuel
tells of a man who left his business in his own country, and at
considerable expense went to England to sell a quantity of stones which
he had been assured were diamonds, only to find on arrival there that
they were simply quartz. This experience in one form or another has
doubtless been repeated countless times, and should serve to show the
importance of knowledge on the part of all purchasers of gems of the
features which make them intrinsically valuable.
It
may be said in general that the one quality of most gems which cannot
be successfully duplicated is their hardness. The best simple
protection therefore against purchase of a glass imitation for most
precious stones will be found in a test of this property. Glass is
softer than most precious stones, and hence is much more easily
scratched than they. It will yield to the file, while they will not.
This test should of course be made so as to avoid injury of the stone,
for often the girdle of a gem cut as a brilliant is as delicate as a
knife edge, and great care should be used in testing it. If a file be
not convenient, a fragment of quartz can usually be obtained, and
affords an accurate means of testing hardness, since the hardness of
quartz is 7, and that
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