The Sterling Silver Story

Written by Sam Serio


Silver isrepparttar most common ofrepparttar 145836 Precious Metals. It’s working qualities are very similar to gold. Pure silver, which is seldom used for jewelry because it is too soft. Silver weighs about half as much as gold and has greater flexibility. Though silver is not as malleable as gold it can achieve a more brilliant polish. In fact, silver shines above all other metals in this respect. Silver has been used for many centuries, going back to ancient times, but because it tarnishes and decomposes; it has not survived as well as gold. Periodically, however, silver enjoys great popularity as it does currently. As far asrepparttar 145837 price goes, silver generally lags behind gold by about four or five times. The price of silver jewelry followsrepparttar 145838 price of gold jewelry, however, so as gold rises, silver inevitably does too. The words silver or sterling silver describe a product that contains 92.5% silver. Silver products sometimes may be marked 925, which means that 925 parts per thousand are pure silver. Some jewelry may be described as silver plate: a layer of silver is bonded to a base metal. The mark coin silver is used for compounds that contain 90% silver.

Precious Stones -The Big Five

Written by Sam Serio


The emerald is probablyrepparttar most rare of all precious stones and is considered by some to be even more valuable thanrepparttar 145835 diamond. Compared with other precious stonesrepparttar 145836 emerald in its occurrence in nature is unique, for it is found inrepparttar 145837 rock in which it was formed. Unlike diamonds, sapphires and rubies, it never occurs in gem gravels. The earliest known locality where emeralds were found was in Upper Egypt nearrepparttar 145838 coast ofrepparttar 145839 Red Sea. The best stones, however, are found in Columbia, South America. Fine specimens have also been found inrepparttar 145840 United States in North Carolina.

Whilerepparttar 145841 usual shade of color seen in emeralds is alluded to as emerald green, there are other shades, such as grass green, sea green and green slightly tinged with yellow. The shades most highly valued are those of an intense fresh green sometimes compared with that seen in a meadow in spring.

Beryl is a mineral known to gem lovers under several different names,repparttar 145842 most valued of which isrepparttar 145843 Emerald. The mineral beryl composingrepparttar 145844 various gems is practicallyrepparttar 145845 same in composition, hardness, and other properties, andrepparttar 145846 gems may be differentiated only by their color. In composition beryl is a silicate of aluminum and glucinum. Onrepparttar 145847 scale of hardness beryl is graded 7 ½ to 8, and is thus much softer thanrepparttar 145848 diamond, ruby, or sapphire. It is owing to this fact thatrepparttar 145849 emerald scratches easily and that care must be taken that when worn it is not subject to chafing by diamonds or other harder gems.

Beryl as a mineral is of quite common occurrence, andrepparttar 145850 crystals ofrepparttar 145851 mineral in its cruder form often grow to enormous size. There is one such single crystal preserved inrepparttar 145852 Boston Museum of Natural History, which is three and one half feet long and three feet wide and weighs several tons.

Beryl in this common form occurs in many localities, butrepparttar 145853 mineral in its rarer form of emerald is comparatively of very rare occurrence. The emerald or green beryl, as it should be scientifically known, has long beenrepparttar 145854 most highly prized ofrepparttar 145855 green gems. In brilliancy it exceeds all other green gems excepting onlyrepparttar 145856 very rare green sapphire. The most valuable specimens exhibit a vivid grass-green shade, and it is to this color that they owe their great value. Other considerations, such as freedom from imperfections, are quite secondary in determiningrepparttar 145857 value ofrepparttar 145858 stone. In fact a perfect emerald is almost never found, and this circumstance has passed into an Eastern simile which runs, “As scarce as a perfect emerald,” this being a symbol forrepparttar 145859 acme of rarity. The emerald is light in weight and an emerald of a given size will be about a third larger than a diamond and forty-five per cent larger than a sapphire of equal weight. The distinctive color ofrepparttar 145860 emerald is probably due to a trace of chromium in its composition.

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