goldstein-diamonds

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Clarity and Diamond Inclusions

No two diamonds are the same and will vary significantly in value. In addition to various sizes, shapes, and colors, diamonds will have internal characteristics that set them apart from others. Any diamond that is polished has value, some much more than others, but what makes some more valuable?

 The value is based on several factors. Rarity is one that comes into play and can make a big difference in the price. However, rarity is a hard thing to measure precisely. Certain qualities such as size and particularly color can make a diamond rarer.

 Professional diamond graders judge a diamond's value based on the 4Cs of color, clarity, cut, and carat weight. A low score on any one or a combination of the 4Cs will reduce a diamond's value.

 Inclusions - negative features that detract from a diamond's value

 One of the characteristics of a diamond that make it so attractive is its transparency. We want the diamond to be very clear. The second of the 4C diamond characteristics, clarity, refers to how many inclusions a diamond has. 

 Inclusions are flaws inside the gemstone that detract from value. Diamond graders are looking for the best diamonds, internally flawless ones. It's rare to find a completely flawless diamond, but as long as the naked eye can't see the inclusions, the value will be higher.

 Diamonds frequently contain inclusions, like many other stones from nature. Inclusions or flaws can change the look and clarity and can be found in all types of diamonds.

Blemishes and scratches on a diamond's surface can also affect clarity, but these can often be polished away. If you have jewelry with scratches of blemishes on a diamond, keep in mind a jeweler will have to remove that diamond for polishing.

 How are inclusions formed in a diamond?

 Diamonds are made entirely of the element carbon and formed 135-180 kilometers deep in the Earth's mantle billions of years ago. At that depth, there are very high pressures and temperatures that cause the carbon atoms to become arranged in a dense cubic crystal structure. 

 Different minerals or impurities can be trapped in the diamond's crystal structure as they are formed. As described previously, the fewer of these impurities called inclusions are trapped within the gemstone structure, the higher the grade of clarity.

 Types of inclusions

 Different types of inclusions may affect the value and the appearance of the diamond. By looking at the shape and the structure of the inclusion, specific names can be given to certain types. 

 A diamond certificate should have an inclusion map, also called a clarity characteristics line. Inclusions and blemishes of all types are called "clarity characteristics." A key in the inclusion map will indicate what the inclusions look like in your diamond and their position within the stone.

 Crystal or mineral inclusion

 One type is called a crystal inclusion. Some crystals look like a diamond within the diamond or may look a lot like bubbles. Most crystal inclusions can't be seen without magnification, but there can be groupings of crystals so thick they can be seen with the naked eye. If a thick crystal takes on a darker appearance, that lowers its clarity grade and the diamond's value. 

 Cloud inclusion

 A cloud inclusion is a broad term denoting a group of small inclusions close together. They can be large or small, dense or sparse, and can look very different if the diamond has an immense cloud. If the cloud inclusion starts to look cloudy or hazy, it will harm the stone's appearance to the naked eye.

 Feathers

 One of the simplest types of inclusions to recognize and classify is a feather inclusion. As a diamond rises through the Earth's crust, the immense pressure can cause a crack or a fracture within the stone that looks similar to a feather. They usually appear white and vary significantly in size and shape.

 If the fracture is small, it typically won't affect the diamond's durability unless the feather reaches the surface on the diamond's top, where accidental blows may happen.

 Needle

 A needle is comparable to a crystal inclusion but has a shape like a needle. It forms when extreme pressure turns a crystal into a needle shape instead of the usual circle. Needle inclusions are seldom visible to the naked eye and are usually white or translucent.

 Indented natural

 Another type of inclusion is called an indented natural. This occurs when part of a rough diamond's skin is left on the polished stone's surface and then goes inside the diamond. Strictly speaking, it is not an inclusion in the ordinary sense but is counted as one as it breaks the stone's natural surface. And when it doesn't break the surface, it's simply called a natural, and it's not counted as inclusion. 

 You could have an internally flawless diamond, but it would still have a natural marked on the inclusion map. Naturals are usually on the girdle of the diamond. 

 Twinning wisp inclusions

 This is oddly named inclusion occurs when a diamond ceases growing and then starts growing again in a different direction, possibly thousands of years later. The change in grain leaves a mark in the diamond similar to a knot in a piece of wood. Twinning wisp inclusions are typical in heart-shaped stones as the resultant twin stone is a very suitable shape for a heart-shaped or pear-shaped diamond.

 Conclusion

 Inclusions in diamonds can range in size from the sub-microscopic to the millimeter scale. Larger diamonds are statistically more likely to contain more inclusions, and these inclusions are more likely to be larger. The number of diamonds with visually recognizable inclusions is generally relatively small.

 When you're buying a diamond, it's essential to look at the detail of the stone's impurities so you know why your diamond has been given its particular grade of clarity. This is especially important when buying a diamond with a lower grade of clarity as it can sometimes significantly affect both the appearance and the price of your gemstone.

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From Anulus Pronubus to the Gold Diamond Ring

The oldest record of wedding rings being used was about 4800 years ago in ancient Egypt. Various plants such as grasses, reeds, rushes, and sedges, would be twisted and braided into rings for fingers and other decorative ornaments. More permanent materials, such as leather, bone, and ivory, were later used.

The Romans adopted this tradition but with a somewhat more chauvinistic purpose than a symbol of love. A woman was given a ring as a claim of ownership. Roman wedding rings were later made of iron and called "Annulus Pronubus," symbolizing strength and permanence. The Romans were also one of the first to engrave their rings.

In the Roman Empire, jewelry was expressive of the owners' religious and aesthetic preferences. It reflected their socioeconomic status or, in other words, their financial standing and their position in the social hierarchy. The finger ring was an indicator of the owner's personal beliefs and adorned with a carefully chosen artifact.

It could be a good luck charm (amuletum) or a seal ring, or just an adornment. A particular ring could represent the person's religious beliefs, express their reverence for particular gods, superstition, protect them against evil, and aesthetic preferences.

 They wore the ring on the left hand's third finger because of the belief in a 'vena amoris' - the vein of love, a vein that was believed to run from the finger directly to the heart. Although most people no longer believe in this superstitious idea, married couples to this day still wear wedding rings on the left hand's third finger.

However, a more practical and less romantic reason for this tradition could be the simple fact that most people are right-handed. Wearing a ring on the left-hand resulted in less wear-and-tear on the ring and damage risk.  

The first diamond engagement rings

The word "diamond" comes from the Greek "Adamo," or "l subdue," referring not to a chauvinist attitude towards marriage but to the diamond's hardness and its ability to scratch any surface without being scratched. The word "Adamas" was used for diamonds for centuries, although it is not always clear that the gem being referred to was diamond, or if it was sapphire, the next hardest mineral.

Long ago, a diamond wasn't associated with romance. Diamonds were thought of as something magical, offering power and protection. The diamond's history is a long one, starting from ancient Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians and finally ending up on a ring.

Diamonds have been used in finger rings since the 3rd Century BCE. The oldest known example is a ring from Ai Khanoumt, Afghanistan. The ring was fashioned in a Greek Hellenistic style suggesting Greek jewelers working in the region. No diamond jewelry dating to antiquity has been found in Greece, and Europe's oldest diamond set rings are Roman, dating to the 2nd and 3rd Centuries CE.

Rings have been used for engagement and wedding ceremonies since antiquity, but it is not until the late 15th century that we find betrothal rings set with diamonds. During the late Middle Ages, diamonds were still scarce, but diamond-set jewelry gifts became more common among Europe's nobles.

History shows The Duke of Burgundy gave a gift of a brooch set with diamonds and rubies to his mother. King Richard IIs gave diamond jewelry gifts to his second wife, the then seven-year-old Isabella of France. Also, Etienne de Chevaliers presented diamond jewelry gifts to Agnes Sorel, known as 'Dame de Beauté,' the French King Charles Vll's favorite mistress.

In 1475 for the first time, a diamond played a central role in a marriage, during the wedding between Constanzo Sforza and Camilla D'Aragona. It is unknown if a ring set with diamonds was exchanged in the ceremony, but it seems very likely. 

There was a series of portrait miniatures made for the occasion, with one having a picture of the Greek God of marriage, Hymen, wearing a robe with a pattern of rings with diamonds. Another has Hymen standing next to a table with torches held together by a large ring with a diamond. The picture includes the text in French translated to English that says:

"Two torches in one ring of burning fire

Two wills, two hearts, two passions

are bonded in marriage by a diamond"

The rise of diamond rings

In the 1720s, diamonds were discovered in Brazil, and the supply increased, and a demand for larger diamonds for engagement and wedding purposes rose. The technical development of tools and techniques for diamonds paved the way for new designs, and many diamonds started to be cut in ways resembling the modern brilliant. In 1761, King George Ill presented Queen Charlotte with a solitaire diamond ring, a style of engagement and wedding ring still popular today.

Modern wedding rings

Today, the solitaire diamond and gold wedding band in a Tiffany-style setting is the most popular engagement ring. However, you don't have to buy an expensive diamond ring for your engagement ring.

For many, in the modern world, a diamond represents romance and glamour, wealth and status, so offering a diamond ring to our beloved carries a lot of emotional value. Ostensibly, the more expensive the material, the more love is shown to the receiver; the ring's value also demonstrates the giver’s wealth.

Wedding rings are not just a mere gift from the groom to the bride and vice versa. It is a symbol of eternity and commitment. The wedding ring's roundness represents eternity and symbolizes eternal love, devotion, and that the couple is forever united in the marriage bond.

The common perception of society understands the symbolism. If a woman wears a usually solitaire diamond ring on her left-hand ring finger, it's an engagement ring. 

If a gold band is worn, then it means she's married. 

This is a culture that began in western society, but a tradition of great value for many other societies have adapted. Some women prefer to wear both engagement and wedding rings together. Whether one wants or not to wear the ring is a personal one, to be made according to the conscientious views one holds.

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How Diamonds are Formed and Found

Humans have been fascinated with gemstones for thousands of years. They are among the rarest and most desirable minerals on the Earth. Throughout history, gems play essential roles in economics, politics, religion, law, and fashion.

We collect and possess gems for many reasons: to adorn ourselves, for our surroundings, to demonstrate wealth, as investments, or to benefit from their supposed healing properties.

Gemmologists, those trained in the science of gem materials, are like detectives. They identify gemstones and determine their nature, whether they are natural, treated, or synthetic. Of all the gemstones, a diamond's properties are unique and among the most highly prized, valued, and widely studied minerals.

Just carbon - A diamond is the three-dimensional form of carbon, the flatform is graphite, and sheets of it can come off, which is how a pencil makes a mark on a paper. However, when carbon is formed into a three-dimensional shape, it gets high hardness, high strength, and a high refraction index. And much beauty of the light inside and the ability to be transparent.

Geological Origin of Diamonds

Our planet structure comprises the crust, the mantle, and the core. The crust is essentially the Earth's surface, where we live and where all our gemstones, including diamonds, are found.

The crust is the thinnest part of the Earth's regions at around 40 kilometers (25 miles) thick. The thickness will vary depending on the landmass's age and whether it is under the oceanic crust or the continental crust.

To put this into perspective, the whole Earth is 12,742 km (7917.5 mi) in diameter. The crust is divided into zones, known as tectonic plates, continually moving over the planet's surface. They're pulling apart, pushing together, and sliding under one another, forming geological processes such as earthquakes and volcanoes.

It is the volcanic eruptions that brought diamonds to the surface of the crust millions of years ago. The mantle, which is just beneath the crust, consists of mainly molten rock, and it is here where diamonds form. The core is at the center of the planet and has two areas: the inner core, which is mostly solid, and the outer core, mainly molten.

The place where diamonds form is known as the geological origin of diamonds. There is a range of temperatures and pressures in the mantle, and diamonds mainly form under pressures of 50 kilobars at depths of 150 kilometers (94 miles) on average. A kilobar is 1,000 times atmospheric pressure, so the pressures that diamonds format are 50,000 times that of atmospheric pressure. The temperature increases the further down into the mantle we go.

However, this temperature varies depending on where you are in the mantle in relation to the crust. Below the thinner oceanic crust, at 150 kilometers (94 miles), the temperature is around 1,500 degrees Celsius. Underneath the thicker area of the continental crust, known as a craton, the temperature is slightly lower at approximately 1,100 degrees centigrade.

Under these cratons, at slightly lower temperatures, diamonds have the right environment in which to form. So, having taken into account the Earth's structure, it is clear we now have a recipe for creating diamonds.

One of the reasons that diamonds are so rare is that they require such specific circumstances to form. They need a temperature between 1000 to 1300 degrees and a pressure of between 45 to 60 kilobars. These conditions are found at depths of 135-180 kilometers within the mantle and only found under cratons. They also need a carbon-rich environment.

Without carbon, diamonds would not form as predominantly they are made of that single element. Meeting these conditions provides an ideal environment for the formation of diamonds. If only one of these criteria is not met, the diamond will not form. The carbon will bond differently or with other elements and form different minerals.

In the upper mantle, carbon is believed to make up only a tiny fraction of 1% of this layer. Still, additional carbon is recycled continuously from Earth's surface due to the oceanic crust's subduction (when one tectonic plate moves under another.)

Cratons

Cratons are the oldest, thickest areas of the crust. The word comes from the Greek Kratos, meaning strength. These areas have been folded, heated, stretched, and crushed by the Earth's geological activities for millions of years.

Formed far back in geological time cratons we know, through scientific research and analysis, some are over 2 billion years old. They are now left as thick, tough, rigid, and stable landmasses unaffected by current geological movement.

The pressure and temperature conditions required for the formation of diamonds are under the oldest cratons, the archons, and the protons. Look at where the cratons are formed on a map. The cratons coincide with the most critical diamond-producing countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Australia, Canada, and Russia.

While North America has the most massive known craton globally, there has never been a profitable diamond mine in North America.

How are diamonds found?

Diamonds come to Earth’s surface from the mantle, where a specific volcanic eruption type forms them. This eruption, called a “kimberlite eruption,” spews out Kimberlite, an igneous rock containing diamonds in its rock matrix. The last eruption was over 100 million years ago, so these gemstones have been waiting a long time to be found.

Kimberlite eruptions occur within continental cratons with the environments to help diamonds maintain stability on their journey to the surface. Knowing this helps diamond exploration by narrowing down the geography where Kimberlite eruptions occur. Geologists and diamond prospectors look for kimberlites, pipe-like formations created by the eruptions.

How are Kimberlite pipes minded? When found, a kimberlite pipe is tested. If the concentration of diamonds is high enough to allow economic extraction, massive quantities of earth will be dug out from an open pit’s surface. Huge trucks and giant steam shovels dig a deep hole. The deepest open-pit diamond mine currently, The Jwaneng diamond mine in Botswana, is 400 meters (1300 feet) deep.

Another geological source of diamonds is in alluvial or placer deposits. Diamonds in the kimberlite host rock are exposed as the stone is washed away by streams and rivers over millions of years.

The diamonds freed from the rock are deposited in the stream sands, a river bed, an ocean floor, or a shoreline. Alluvial deposits generally have a higher percentage of gem-quality diamonds than primary deposits (diamonds form deep within the Earth).

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Grading Diamond Jewelry For Color

All diamonds are not created equal

One thing that makes diamonds so exceptional and the need for a grading system is that each diamond is unique. They have different sizes, shapes, colors, and internal characteristics. Any polished diamond has value, some more than others, a lot more! But what makes some more valuable than others?

The value is based on several factors. Rarity is one that comes into play and can make a big difference in the price. However, rarity is difficult to measure. Certain qualities, such as size, and particularly color, can make a diamond rare.

What can be measured more precisely is four established essential factors. Professional jewelers use a systematic way, a grading system, to evaluate a diamond's quality based on - Clarity, Color, Cut, and Carat Weight.

Diamond Clarity refers to the absence of inclusions and blemishes, and not the color. You may have a blue of a red diamond, but it will be worthless if it has a low clarity rating. Although you have a colored diamond, you may have something as they can be worth a lot of money due to their rarity.

Diamond Color Means Lack of Color

Historically, the evaluation of most diamonds focused on the absence of color. Grading systems and methods used for this purpose was not clearly defined, standardized, or consistently applied before the 1950s.

In the late 19th century, the color was considered a diamond's most important value factor. Still, the naming conventions in use at the time placed color in a variety of categories that were general at best.

For example, jewelers often described a diamonds' color using terms as "River" or "Water" for the most colorless diamonds. Or by association with a geographic location from which similarly colored diamonds came, such as:

"Wesselton" and "Top Wesselton" for near-colorless diamonds traditionally associated with the Wesselton mine.

"Cape" for pale yellow diamonds from the Cape of Good Hope region.

"Jager" for colorless diamonds with strong fluorescence such as those typically recovered from the "Jagersfontein" mine in South Africa.

Today, this lack of color is expressed worldwide in a grading system introduced by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) more than 67 years ago. Richard Liddicoat, who became the executive director of GIA in 1952, created a full diamond grading system. He taught this new system for the first time in 1953 to jewelers in classes around the United States.

The ranges of color still used today go from D (colorless) to Z (light yellow). With the acceptance of this system, color grade has become a critical component in the valuation of diamonds, leading to historic highs at the top end of the scale.

Diamond Color Chart

Light Source Testing for Diamond Color and Fluorescence

Grading a diamond’s color has to be done very carefully and with a controlled process. The color of a diamond, as the eye sees it, may be affected by:

(1) the comparative amount of the various spectrum colors which it disperses, and

(2) the color of the light reflected from the sky, walls, ceiling, or other objects.

Upon examination by transmitted light against a white, neutral gray, or black background, the diamond's actual color is observable. The resulting appearance is known as body color.

However, suppose the colored reflections (2) fall upon those surfaces of the diamond, which are toward the eye. In that case, the actual body color may not be observable. If colored reflections fall upon a white background against which the diamond is being examined, they will also affect the body color.

Since at least the 1970s, millions of diamonds have been graded using fluorescent lighting at the GIA. Now it has become the standard in the diamond industry.

The GIA, to ensure consistency in the grading system, proposed changes in lighting are thoroughly tested. Someone must evaluate the grading methodologies' potential benefits against the possible damage caused if subsequent color grades were inconsistent with earlier ones.

The technical specifications for the lighting used for D-to-Z color grading at GIA are precise to ensure consistent grading results. The technical requirements include the fluorescent lamp's size, the light's intensity, how far from light the grading tray is, and many other technical specs.

The grader lays out diamonds in a row from a set of master stones from each color grade. The submitted diamond is moved down the row, comparing where it falls in the color grade spectrum.

The next step is to look at the diamond under Ultraviolet lighting for any signs of fluorescence. Diamonds with fluorescence will glow or radiate a blue, white, yellow, green, or even a red color in the presence of UV light. About 30% of all gem-quality diamonds will exhibit fluorescence from trace elements naturally in a diamond.

The visual complexity and often too subtle color of a polished diamond can make the grading of color very challenging. To ensure that the most accurate color and fluorescence grades are assigned, several graders will judge the submitted diamond. Each grader does not know what grade the others gave the diamond. When there is an agreement between individual graders, the color grade is assigned.

When color is desirable

While most people saw the ultimate diamond as entirely transparent and colorless, colored diamonds have gained popularity in the last few years. Nature does occasionally produce colored diamonds. These "fancy color diamonds" include blue, brown, pink, deep yellow, green, or red gemstones.

Colored diamonds like pink diamonds or blue diamonds (such as the Hope Diamond) can be much more valuable than colorless stones. Red diamonds are the rarest of all. Add a high carat weight to a blue or red-colored diamond, and it will be extremely expensive.

Blue diamonds are scarce, with only one found once a year. A rough 777 carat stone from the South African Premier Diamond Mine, the world's largest blue diamond supplier, was found and cut to a weight of 27.64 carats. Now famous as The Heart of Eternity, it is valued at around 16 million dollars.

The Heart of Eternity diamond is a bargain compared to the Hope Diamond, though, a 45.42-carat Fancy Dark Gray-Blue diamond, valued at 200-$250 million! The high value is also due to its historical significance, another feature of a gemstone that can increase its value.

If you are looking for diamond jewelry or loose diamonds, have them graded or make sure they have a GIA Diamond Grading Report. There are also other trustworthy labs, including AGS, IGI, EGL, GSI, and HRD.

Different certification labs will give different results as grading is subjective, despite the extensive standardization. The GIA and AGS are the most consistent grading labs.

#diamond #jewelry

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The History of Gold: A Primer

The Sweat of the Sun

In Mexico for the Mesoamerican culture, gold was extremely valuable. The Aztecs believed that gold was the sweat of the sun. They thought they could actually pick up pieces of the sweat of the sun. Gold had strong spiritual significance because the God of Sun was a very important component of their culture.

With gold's beautiful properties, it's shiny and yellow, it was only natural to assign its origins to the Sun. What is really amazing is we now know that gold, like most heavy metals, is forged by stars through nuclear fusion.

One Astro Physicist’s theory is the formation of gold comes the collision of 2 neutrons stars. (a star 20 times the mass of our Sun)

So, the theory goes: Two neutron stars orbiting around each other kiss generating billions of degrees of heat and eject a Jupiter sized mass of pure gold. Wow, wonder how much that is worth!

Let’s see, Jupiter weighs one trillion eight hundred ninety-eight billion metric tons – a metric ton is 2204 pounds. So about four quadrillion one hundred eighty-three trillion one hundred ninety-two billion pounds of gold. Times $31,040 per pound = it’s worth a whole heck of a lot!

From the stars to earth

Gold and other metals found its way to earth in meteorites as they bombarded the earth’s surface 200 million years after our planet formed. Earth was still hot enough to melt iron, gold, and other metals, which sank to make the core.

When fault lines slip and there are earthquakes, gold deep from underground can gather in the cracks between slabs of rock. There gold can be mined or discovered later after it has been washed down by rain into a river.

First Gold Mines

Ancient Egypt is considered as one of the first civilizations in the world to discover gold.  Gold production started as early as pre-dynastic times in Egypt around 4000 B.C. By 1300 BC, they were mining underground veins of gold in Nubia, a region along the Nile river.

With more than 100 mines in the Nubia area under Egyptian control, Egypt had the largest gold-filled treasury in the ancient world. Becoming the dominant power in the Middle East until around 664 B.C.

Gold has been a much desired and used metal even before the Egyptians. Much of those early days is not known. But with the many hieroglyphs and artifacts, we know that the ancient Egyptians loved gold.

They buried their kings and queens with it, designed accessories, used it as decoration, made furniture with it, and used it as an exchange in international trade.

The Beatles Discovered Gold in Africa?

Did you know George Harrison was digging up stones to build a house in South Africa and found an outcropping on a farm called Langlaagte? Not Beatle George, but an Australian prospector with the same name. This was in 1868 and the poor chap sold his claim for 10 Pound sterling not realizing the extent of the find.

In 1853 a South African prospector Pieter Jacob Marais had already recovered some modest amounts of alluvial gold (gold dust) from the Jukskei River. Gold prospectors following Marais discovery somehow missed the “Witwatersrand Main Reef,” a ridge of gold-bearing rock that Harrison had found just as an outcropping several years later.

George Harrison did not realize that this outcropping he found extended for 40 miles or more. As the scale of the gold deposits became apparent, the South African city Johannesburg grew up around this find and since has yielded nearly 40% of all gold ever mined!

There’s gold in them thar hills! – Americas gold fever

Everyone has heard or the California gold rush. But did you know the first gold rush was in North Carolina? It is a wonderful story that should be a movie if it hasn’t been made.

Imagine you are a 12-year-old boy fishing in a creek on the family farm and you find a gold nugget that weighed 17 pounds! That is exactly what happened to young Conrad Reed in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, making his family very rich.

This occurred in 1799 when gold was worth about twenty dollars an ounce. That one nugget would be worth around 5,440 dollars. The average wage earner during that period only made maybe $15.00 a week.

News of gold spread rapidly with more being found in neighboring counties. Many people hoping to get rich started to move to this previously sparsely populated area of North Carolina.

California Dreamin’                        

Gold was discovered in Northern California on January 24th, 1848 in what is now El Dorado County. 

When James Wilson Marshall was helping John Sutter build a sawmill, Marshall was checking the channel below the mill and saw some shiny flecks of gold in the channel bed. That simple observation had a significant effect on the growth and history of America during the first half of the 19th century.

News of the discovery soon spread like wildfire and reached not just America, but around the whole world. All the able-bodied men in the area no longer wanted to help build the mill, and the John Sutter sawmill never opened.

A storekeeper in Sutter's Creek named Sam Brannan ran around San Francisco with a bottle filled with gold dust shouting 'Gold! Gold! Gold!' Then in March, a San Francisco newspaper, The Californian, printed a story about the discovery of gold. The spark was lit and thousands of people began to dream about the riches they would have.

By 1855 hundreds of thousands of people had made their way to California. The largest mass migration in American history. Many giving up everything they had to make the arduous journey, including their lives. People who heard about the gold came from around the world, Western Europe, Australia, China, and Central and South America.

Over 90% of above-ground gold existing in the world was mined since the California Gold Rush.

Gold today

Gold has been used as money and a store of value for thousands of years. But man's relationship with gold goes much deeper and our place in history and extends far beyond coins, bars, and jewelry.

Gold has many other uses. In fact, aside from its monetary and symbolic value, gold is widely used in electronics and electrical wiring, dentistry, medicine, and radiation shielding.

Because gold is so durable almost every ounce mined through history is still above ground. All that gold would fit into two Olympic-sized swimming pools. Refined and recast many times over, a ring you bought today may contain traces of gold that Cleopatra may have worn!

The largest above-ground stock of gold resides in the secure vaults of the world's central banks. In total, the top 10 central banks in the world own some 23,000 tons of gold and the IMF owns another 2,000 tons. This equates to around 12% of all the gold ever mined throughout thousands of years of history. 

#gold

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Top Reasons to Invest in Diamonds

The global economy has had many ups and downs since 2008, and mostly downs. We find ourselves now in 2020 and beyond in even more uncertain times. People more than ever are looking for ways to protect their money.

Just having money in the bank or stocks is not safe. Banks can and have collapsed as the stock market can collapse. It is better to hold physical commodities like gold in your hand.

Over the last several years there has been an increasing interest in investing in diamonds. People are catching on to the fact that the price of diamonds reliably increases overtime. Diamonds are seen as an investment opportunity, both by individuals and the professional investment community.

5 Reasons to Invest in diamonds

#1: One of the safest possible investment purchases

Diamonds offer price stability in a period of economic decline. They may lose a little of their value during a world crisis, but generally, they provide protection against deflation and market collapses. In rough times, investors are more likely to liquidate assets that are more easily replaceable than diamonds. So, it's unlikely that there will suddenly be a large supply of diamonds on the market.

#2 The price of diamonds reliably increases overtime

As mentioned previously, you can expect your diamonds to grow in value. This has been shown historically that a diamond’s value appreciates over time. To help ensure that it does hold its value, make sure it’s professionally certified by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).

#3 Durability

Diamonds are the hardest substance on earth. They are very durable and can indeed last forever. This makes them a good investment as an heirloom to be passed down from generation to generation. Because of the durable/unbreakable nature of diamonds, they don’t lose their value over time.

#4 Portability of Diamonds

Diamonds are a very small concentration of wealth. You can maintain physical possession and take them with you anywhere you want to go. Consider this - 1 oz of diamonds equals 45 pounds of gold. At today’s price of gold that would let you carry $87,300 in almost your pocket! Also, because they are small, you don't need extensive or expensive storage, just a small safe will suffice.

#5 Rarity of Diamonds

The fact that diamonds are rare and the demand keeps increasing year after year, also makes them a good investment. Most diamond mines nowadays are known, and they are closed at the end of their productive lives. Some big ones have closed recently. So, in time diamonds will become even rarer, as any natural resource can. This affects the long-term increase in the value of diamonds.

Diamond jewelry or loose diamonds?

There are two ways to invest in diamonds – one is buying diamond jewelry like an engagement ring, and the other is purchasing investment-grade diamonds as loose gems.

This and the physical nature of diamonds makes investing in diamonds a bit more complicated than some other investment options. It is not as straightforward as investing in things like the stock market.

When looking for reasons to invest in diamonds, first, let's look at the definition of investment and what it means to invest money in something.

“An investment, or to invest, is to put money to use by purchase or expenditure in something offering potential profitable returns as an interest income or appreciation in value.”

Where do diamonds fit in this definition? And is it different when you're purchasing something like an engagement ring or if you're purchasing a diamond as a store of value for the future? 

Diamond rings or diamond jewelry can be a good investment, as with other physical commodities, it tends to increase in price over time, regardless of the state of the economy. But there is a difference between diamond jewelry purchases and investment-grade diamonds purchased as loose gems.

If you are buying a diamond ring, for example, you are most likely purchasing that from a jeweler, not a wholesale loose diamond. The ring bought from a jeweler will have large markup. So, if you are going to sell it, most likely you won’t get the full value.

Should I invest in diamonds?

Is diamond jewelry a good investment for the future? A second question is, if you want to diversify your assets and buy diamonds to put away as a store of value for the future, are loose diamonds a good investment?

The difference between engagement ring purchases and investment diamonds is that investment diamonds purchased as loose gems are not a “fungible” commodity.

What this means is that unlike gold or silver, every diamond is unique, with differences in carats, cuts, and clarities. Because it’s unique, it’s difficult to standardize for the purpose of being traded on an exchange. It is not an investment like a stock certificate, where every piece of paper is the same.

If you do buy diamond jewelry, you should buy a “pretty” diamond, which means a diamond that measures what a diamond of its weight should measure. One that is brilliant and the inclusions are pleasing.

Now is that pretty diamond an investment? That diamond will retain a certain amount of value for the future, but that does not mean that you can turn around tomorrow and sell it for a profit.

It can be better when you buy loose investment diamonds as a long-term investment. Historically over time, these have appreciated in value. If you buy one that's worth the money, then you should be able to find a buyer willing to pay for that diamond and make a profit, when given time.

Also, note that it is better if you don’t put all your eggs into one basket. Diamonds should be part of a broader investment portfolio which shares other alternatives. This helps lower the risks you are taking because every investment is affected by different factors.

It's also important to be well prepared. familiarize yourself with diamonds and research the terminology regarding investing in diamonds. You yourself should be able to make a realistic assessment of the possible risks and gains. 

#diamond #investment

[goldstein-diamonds]

7 Misconceptions About Buying Jewelry Online

Should you buy Jewelry in a store or should you buy it online?

The first known online purchase was made in 1994. Now over 25 years later eCommerce has gone from a new concept to a multi-trillion-dollar industry. Despite the ubiquitous prevalence of online shopping, some people are not open to purchasing products like jewelry online.

Many will prefer a traditional jewelry store where they can be sure who they are talking to. Especially when it comes to high-value jewelry. Ordering online can create some apprehension due to some of the preconceived notions and myths surrounding the ecommerce industry.

Anyone with some skill on a computer can create a website and post diamonds, rings, earrings, watches, and other jewelry items. However, you have no way of really knowing who they are and where they are. You also don’t know if the jewelry listed on the site and shown even really exist at all!

But here us what needs to be considered. It costs a bit of money to create a website that can handle ecommerce transactions, and sites that have a bad reputation are going to lose their investment. So overall, most online shopping experiences are good. 

There are online jewelry stores out there designed to bait and switch and you don't want to deal with them. You just need to know who you're dealing with. There are many with good reputations, some you have likely heard of and others not. Just do your research and you will find that online jewelry shopping is a great way to add to your collection or find that perfect gift.

There are advantages to shopping for jewelry at a physical location. You can talk to the jeweler directly, get advice, compare many items, and return an item without the fear of it being lost in the mail.

But with online jewelry shopping, you can shop right from your home at any time of the day or night. You can also compare prices with countless other online stores for a particular item. You may be far from a big store with a huge selection in another city, but you have access to it right there online. No wonder so many people love online shopping!

Here are 7 misconceptions some people have about online jewelry shopping.

1. Lack of options: This is one of the biggest myths about shopping online. For an online store, the available space and display space is not an issue. In this way, the collection can be quite varied. Many online retailers have warehouses or access to a common warehouse so shoppers have access to numerous designs right from the comfort of the home.

2. No new designs: Don’t think that you will get out of fashion jewelry designs. Gone are the days when online stores were not updated for months. In fact, online stores are updated with new designs almost on a daily basis. This means you get access to the latest designs even before they hit the market. You will also find online jewelry stores that offer custom made jewelry and antique and vintage jewelry.

3. Lack of accountability: Some people believe that online jewelry stores will not address their concerns while the truth is that most online jewelry stores have a well-defined procedure for complaints to ensure regular business, which is dependent on positive reviews.

4. Lack of expert advice: Most shoppers, if they are not jewelry experts themselves, want some advice concerning their jewelry selection. A brick and mortar jewelry store will usually have experts there in the store who can assist you in the selection and buying process. Similarly, online jewelry websites such as Goldstein’s Diamonds have experts you can communicate via chat or email and will assist you to enhance your shopping experience.

5. Delay in shipping: Nowadays, most online jewelry stores guarantee to ship your purchases within several days depending on your location. You may be anxious to get your hands on your new treasures, but if you look at all the other benefits offered by online shopping, it is worth the wait.

6. Jewelry cheaper online: It’s a common misconception that jewelry can be bought for a lower price online. You can certainly find sales and special deals amongst the many online dealers. The reality is though, the cost of operating online is not much lower than the cost of operating in a brick and mortar store.

That ecommerce jeweler can be lost with no face to the world as there are thousands if not millions of others competing for your business. The only way they can become known is by spending a good bit of money on Google Ads and other online advertising venues.

7. You Can’t Trust Online Retailers: The online jewelry business is so competitive that sellers cannot afford to sell inferior or damaged products. If they do, their reputation will be ruined and they will quickly go out of business.

If you have never heard of or dealt with a particular seller, do these things first to ensure they are a credible and trusted jeweler:

First, when visiting an online jewelry store check if their website is encrypted with SSL certification. This is indicated when you see https:// as the first part of the website’s address. SSL certification ensures your online payment transactions and the information you provide are secure and protected.

See if there are different payment gateways available that match your payment method.

Look around online and see if there are other mentions of them in review sites or if they have links to social media platforms. You can learn a lot from what others are saying about them in review sites and social media.

An online Jeweler you can trust!

It is understandable that those new to online jewelry buying may have some hesitation. There is no need to worry if you are purchasing from an authorized, reputable and experienced dealer like Goldstein’s Diamonds. You can buy your favorite jewelry online from us with confidence. Or come on in and visit our store personally – we offer the best of both worlds, online and in person!

#jewelry #onlineshopping

[goldstein-diamonds]

A Guide to Protecting, Organizing, and Storing Jewelry

Having a collection of fine jewelry can make you feel a strong sense of pride. Your jewelry might have sentimental value to you, and each piece's exquisite beauty is a wonderful bonus. Your diamond engagement ring, your mother's pearl earrings, the heart-shaped pendant your spouse gave you for Valentine's Day, and the gold charm bracelet you bought yourself after getting a job promotion; they all have a personal significance.

This comprehensive article outlines the information you need to know about how to store your jewelry, which is essential to keeping them safe, secure, and in pristine condition.

How to Store Jewelry

It's important to keep your jewelry somewhere clean and dry, such as a jewelry case lined with fabric. If you don't own one, it is also possible to store your precious collection in an ordinary box, as long as you wrap each individual piece in soft tissue paper.

In most cases, when you purchase fine jewelry, the sales associate will give you a pouch or case designed with a special finish. Some of these pouches or cases will have ultra-soft, while others can even have anti-tarnish properties to keep the piece of jewelry looking new for longer. Store your jewelry in these containers, as artisans designed them with that particular piece in mind.

How to Organize Jewelry

Knowing where to keep your jewelry is only the first step. Next, always tidy and organize your jewelry box, as this will provide you with many benefits. If your collection is cluttered or jumbled together, then you will risk scratching or tangling your delicate pieces. Moreover, an unorganized collection will prevent you from finding the piece of jewelry you want right away.

Invest in a jewelry box that has many different compartments to separate your pieces. Doing so will keep your jewelry collection all in one place, yet the pieces will be distant enough from each other to prevent any scratches and tangles.

How to Store Gold Jewelry

Gold is the most malleable element, and rubbing against hard gemstones and other jewels can damage it. To maintain the quality of your gold accessories, you should store each piece by themselves in either a soft cloth bag, or in the original box you bought them in.

How to Store Silver Jewelry

It's crucial to keep all silver jewelry absolutely dry, stored in a tarnish-proof cloth, and away from exposure to the air. You have the option to buy special silver storage boxes as well, which are lined with a tarnish-proof fabric to prevent silver jewelry from discoloring and darkening. Also, you should never allow your silver jewelry to touch rubber, since the sulphur within rubber will cause your silver pieces to tarnish.

How to Store Diamond Jewelry and Loose Diamonds

Diamonds are some of the strongest materials on earth. If you store your diamonds improperly, they can scratch your rubies, sapphires, jades, and other precious stones. Diamonds can also scratch gold, silver, and platinum. To protect the quality of your pieces, isolate each diamond jewelry in a soft pouch before storing them with the rest of your collection.

How to Store Your Everyday Jewelry

Separate the jewelry you wear on a daily basis and place them in a tray next to your bedside, or in a smaller jewelry box. Doing so will help you find exactly what you need and remind you of your jewelry choices. Using a hanging organizer with a number of clear pockets is another excellent way to store your most used jewelry. These convenient organizers will help keep your pieces separate and visible.

How to Keep Your Jewelry Safe and Secured

If you have rare and valuable pieces—including vintage, antique, and estate jewelry—you have every right to be concerned with their security. Not only would that heirloom engagement ring or prized diamond-encrusted necklace signify a sentimental loss, but it could also be a painful financial blow. Anyone, perhaps even the Queen of England and Princess of Monaco, would be devastated if someone were to steal their expensive jewels. But for commoners like ourselves who may not have 24/7 security like the royals, how can we keep our jewelry safe at home?

Insurers revealed that jewelry is more commonly stolen from the home, which is evident in the crimes committed by The Bling Ring. On a more positive note, there are many clever ways to secure jewelry from home theft.

Keep the jewelry in your home locked up in a safe, especially during celebrations or the holidays when many different guests are visiting your home. Leaving your jewelry lying around on dressers and tables is something to avoid.

Install high-quality security systems in your home, especially if you have other valuables. Make sure to test your security cameras and alarms frequently, and form a strict habit of setting them before you leave the house.

Enlist the help of trusted members of your community. Your neighbors, for example, can help surveil your property and spot suspicious behavior during times when you're on a business trip, or when your entire family is away on vacation. Don't let the events in Home Alone happen to you.

Last but not least, the most recommended way to store your high-end pieces of jewelry is in a safety deposit box at your local bank.

How to Keep Track of Your Jewelry

Get in the habit of taking a physical inventory count of your jewelry each month. After checking your collection, creating a detailed list of every piece of jewelry in your collection can be useful if you need to file a police report or make an insurance claim.

Here's a step-by-step guide to how you can monitor your jewelry collection:

Take a photograph of each piece of jewelry in your possession.

At the back of each photo, create a written description and note the cost of the piece. You can also keep this information in electronic form.

Remember to store this crucial information in a separate location from your jewelry.

These are the important facts you should know about organizing, protecting, and storing your jewelry. If, however, you are struggling to keep track of your growing collection, then Goldstein Diamonds is at your service. We buy diamonds, antique jewelry, and modern pieces, too. Call us now at 800-237-0364 to request a market appraisal from leading jewelry experts in Phoenix, AZ. 

#jewelry #gold #storage

[goldstein-diamonds]

10 FAQs About Rose Gold vs. Other Gold Options

Isn't rose gold the most romantic-sounding material ever? If you have been paying even the slightest attention to the hottest trends, then the chances are high that you have seen this gorgeous shade of metallic blush in at least one product. Rose gold smartphones and watches, rose gold makeup palettes, rose gold homeware, and, of course,  beautiful rose gold jewelry—the main star of this article.

All You Need to Know About Rose Gold

Here is a comprehensive breakdown of some of the most frequently asked questions about rose gold vs. gold.

1. How is rose gold different from regular gold?

Gold, in its purest form, is the color you imagine when you think about stacks of gold coins or blocks of gold. It has a captivating yellow or bronze-like tint, although unfortunately, the metal is extremely soft, and artisans cannot turn actual gold into jewelry without combining it with other metals. For that reason, you need to be careful when choosing the karat amount you want in your jewelry. The higher the karat is, the more pure gold is present. In hindsight, the higher the karat is, the softer your gold jewelry becomes. 14 karat gold is more durable than 18 karats, but the former is worth less.

In addition, we mentioned that jewelry makers merge other metals with gold to make it stronger. Some of the most common metals combined with gold include copper, nickel, silver, palladium, and zinc. Depending on the metals used and the percentage or amount present, it will result in the three most popular colors: yellow gold, white gold, and rose gold.

2. What is rose gold and how does it get its distinct color?

Rose gold acquires its pink tint from a combination of pure gold, copper, and sometimes silver, while yellow gold is often the product of adding copper, silver, and zinc to gold. As for white gold, the most common white metals utilized are platinum, palladium, nickel, and manganese.

3. So, is rose gold considered real gold?

Yes. Similar to yellow and white gold, rose gold contains a percentage of real gold, which is then fused with other metals to create a firmer and sturdier material to work with.

4. Is there a way to tell the difference between fake vs. real rose gold?

Search for the hallmark to see the karat weight of your jewelry. There is no such thing as 100% pure rose gold, so any jeweler who says otherwise is either unknowledgeable or dishonest. Also, if a magnet attaches to your jewelry, then it is fake rose gold. The metals gold, copper, and silver present in rose gold are not magnetic. 

5. Does real rose gold tarnish?

Genuine rose gold jewelry does not tarnish or rust. It can, however, begin to appear slightly more red and darker after many years of wear. The percentage of copper in rose gold is responsible for this change. The good news is, many collectors seek out this darkened look, since it makes the jewelry look unique and vintage.

6. How durable is rose gold?

As discussed earlier, natural gold is so soft that the alloy parts in gold jewelry is what makes the pieces stronger. This is especially true for rose gold jewelry because of the copper content.

Copper is one of the most durable metals known to humankind. For centuries, we have been incorporating copper into accessories, decorative items, house construction projects, electrical conductors, transportation equipment, and so on. Rose gold jewelry will last for many years, and they will only look better with age.

7. What type of jewelry can an artisan make with rose gold?

From Tiffany & Co. necklaces to Cartier LOVE bracelets—whatever kind of jewelry you want, you can likely find in a stunning rose gold version. Rose gold might not be as sought-after as other types of metal jewelry, but it has been a trending topic for the last few years, which has made rose gold jewelry options widely available. Its soft color also pairs beautifully with other types of metal, as well as with colored gemstones.

8. Is rose gold more expensive than other gold options?

The price of rose gold jewelry depends on how pure the actual gold content is in the piece. The higher the karat, the purer the gold—which means the more money a piece of rose gold jewelry might fetch. Therefore, when it comes to the value of rose gold (or the value of any color gold), the price point should only differentiate when the karat increases or decreases. 

9. Is rose gold suitable for all skin tones?

Rose gold jewelry compliments everyone and every skin tone. There is a certain softness about it that makes blending in with a person's complexion effortless, whether fair, tan, deep, or anything in between. However, your own preferences will ultimately determine whether the color of rose gold jewelry suits you or not.

10. Does rose gold clash with regular gold jewelry?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Do what your heart desires and wear your rose gold jewelry alongside your white or yellow gold pieces. Besides, due to the inclusion of copper in rose gold and most yellow gold jewelry, the colors compliment each other very well.

Takeway

Rose gold jewelry pairs well with almost everything, it doesn't tarnish, it's durable, and there is a variety of jewelry options available. It's pinkish hue also illuminates a touch of femininity, while still retaining enough yellow to be gender neutral. With such versatility, what more could we ask for? Truly, expanding your collection with a piece of rose gold jewelry will provide you with a timeless classic that you can even pass on to future generations.

Trade Your Jewelry for Immediate Cash in Phoenix, AZ

If you've outgrown your rose gold piece or simply want to upgrade, you can sell your rose gold jewlery to Goldstein Diamonds for a competitive price based on its authenticity, quality, market demand, and other important factors. For any further inquiries or to schedule an appointment, please call our office at 800-237-0364 or email us at [email protected]. Our team will respond to all inquiries within 24 hours.

#jewelry #gold necklace #rosegold

[goldstein-diamonds]

Is Your Sterling Silver Jewelry Real?

First, let’s talk a little about silver. Hi ho silver and away!

Silver has been a human obsession for over 4000 years and the fascination is still with us today. Sterling silver jewelry is the standard for beautiful high-quality jewelry.

Silver is one of the most famous metals in history. Nowadays, besides jewelry, it is used extensively in electronics and other industrial and medical applications. But thousands of years ago, silver was very important to trade.

ANCIENT RECORDS OF SILVER

In the ancient Near East, Societies including Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Phoenicia, and Israel used standards of value for precious metals as a means of payment. There are many records remaining from day-to-day transactions of these early societies.

A court document from the reign of Ramses II in 13th century B.C. describes how a merchant sold a Syrian slave girl to an Egyptian woman for 4 Deben 1 kite or about 373 grams of silver. That’s about 183 dollars by today's silver price of 49 cents per gram.

In ancient Mesopotamia, people kept accounts in silver. As in Egypt, silver by weight was a standard means of accounting for the value of different goods. Silver was also used as a means of payment in commercial transactions.

Cuneiform tablets from ancient Babylonia tell us that the price of barley averaged about 17 grams of silver per 100 quarts.

Silver served as money, and both kings and temples established the weight standards and published in inscriptions the values of certain commodities in silver, as well as the amounts to be paid for fines, interest, or wages. In those days no distinction existed between silver as money and silver as jewelry or utensils.

SILVER COINS

In those ancient days, there were no coins. No one came up with the idea of making standard value coins until the Lydians in 600 B.C. Since silver is less valuable than gold it was used for a lower denomination of coins to be used in everyday transactions. Silver was the most widely used material for coin-making ever.

When we say “was” that is because silver is no longer used for coins. For 180 years in the US, silver was used in coins and circulated as money up until the year 1964, when they stopped making silver coins. The use of silver in coins worked only so long as the value of the silver in each coin was less than the coin’s face value.

Silver dimes, quarters, and half dollars minted in 1964 and earlier are 90% silver. The US deregulated the price of silver back the 1960’s. This soon raised the “melt value” of silver coins far higher than their face value. So, everyone began melting their silver coins and soon there were not many silver coins left. 

STERLING SILVER JEWELRY

If you have sterling silver jewelry or would like to acquire some, it can be a good investment. But that depends on the quality of the jewelry and who made it, not just because it’s made with silver.

Keep in mind sterling silver is not pure silver. It is 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% of another metal such as copper, which is added to make it more durable and less soft.

An average silver ring can weigh between 2 and 4 grams. At the current price of around $0.44 Per Gram of sterling silver, the melt value would be between $0.88 and $1.76. But a quality sterling silver ring can cost between $20 to $500 or higher.

HOW CAN I TELL IF IT IS REAL STERLING SILVER?

Because sterling silver is 92.5% pure silver, you will see it marked “925.” But cheats can add that mark or tell you it is. If you do business with a trusted, reputable jeweler it should be no problem.

If you see beautiful silver jewelry on sale at an amazingly low price, you want to make sure that you are getting the real deal. Or if you want to buy from an unknown source, like at a garage sale, or have already heirloom items at home, there are some tests you can do.

CHECK FOR STAMPS AND OTHER MARKINGS

First, check for stamps that say STERLING .925 or 925/100. These may be on the inside of rings and bracelets. If you find them, as mentioned, it could be a fake stamp added by a crooked jeweler, so further investigation is needed for 100% proof. Also, your silver jewelry or other silver items may just be silver plated with a very thin layer of silver.

Look for markings that include stamps of single-digit numbers, stamps starting with the letters EP, and words like "heavy plate" or "triple." These silver-plated items have little monetary value because they contain very little precious metal.

However, some silver jewelry is given a coat of pure silver. In a process called "flashing" to give it a shiny finish, sterling silver jewelry is sometimes plated with a thin coat of .999 fine silver. It can also be plated with rhodium or gold. This is good.

TEST WITH A MAGNET

You can test your item with a magnet. Sterling silver is non-magnetic. If it sticks to the magnet it is not silver. However, if it doesn’t stick this does not always mean it is sterling silver, but this will help eliminate definitely fake 925 silver.

RUBBING TEST

Real 925 silver oxidizes when exposed to air and is tarnished over time. If you rub the piece with a soft white cloth and the cloth has black marks, then the jewelry is most likely real sterling silver.

CHEMICAL TESTS

There are certain chemical tests that can be done that can give a more reliable result on the silver in question. These include vinegar, bleach, and nitric acid. Tests like this can make your jewelry less valuable if it is marked in any way. And nitric acid is dangerous to work with.

FIND A REPUTABLE JEWELER

What this all boils down to is the best thing you can do to learn whether something is sterling silver is to have it checked by a reputable jeweler. They have the knowledge and tools to test the item in question.

#sterling #silver #jewelry

[goldstein-diamonds]

What is a better Investment? Gold or Diamonds?

To answer the question, what’s a better investment gold or diamonds, we will have to start by looking at the two individually.

GOLD

There are various reasons why investors buy gold. Some investors regard gold as a strategic asset that can be used as a means of portfolio diversification, others regard gold as an inflation hedge and a currency hedge such as hedging against the U.S. dollar. 

One of the reasons why gold is considered a valuable investment option is due to its low or lack of correlation with mainstream financial assets. The lack of correlation between gold and other financial assets makes gold an attractive option especially during financial and economic downturns during which equities tend to be volatile and experience a significant loss of value.

Investors tend to move away from equities during a recession towards gold as gold is often perceived as a “safer” asset during a recession. the increase in gold prices during a recession can be attributed due to switching to the gold market as a result of a lack of trust in financial markets by investors.

INVESTING IN GOLD

Gold Coins - One of the simplest ways of investing in gold is by purchasing the gold bullion. Bullion bars are more suited to large buyers. Gold coins are the best way to buy precious metals for most investors as they are easy to trade and highly liquid.

A wide variety of merchants are available to investors. The merchant sells gold coins to the general public and can also buy them back from the public.

For example, a South African company INVESTGOLD, offers investors, private or institutional, the option to purchase gold bullion by buying a range of coins.

The price of the coins is linked directly to the price of the gold, the rand dollar exchange rate, (the official currency of South Africa) the time of the trade, and the number of coins traded. The most common coin is the Krugerrand, one of the most successful bullion coins with more than 61 million Krugerrands minted thus far. The coin contains 1 troy oz. fine gold

Gold Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) - You can invest in gold through an ETF. An exchange-traded fund is a type of security that has a collection of securities, such as stocks. In this case, a gold ETF is a commodity exchange-traded fund that has only gold as a principal asset.

A number of Gold ETFs have been developed in major world stock exchanges. Examples of gold ETFs include AGOL which is U.S based and listed on the New York stock exchange, GOLD which is traded at Australian stock exchange and Gold Bullion Securities (GBS) which listed on multiple securities such as London stock exchange and Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Investing in gold through ETFs sounds tempting due to the convenience, you need to be aware of this method of investment.

If you use an ETF to invest in gold the problem is, you don’t actually own the gold. You cannot actually take delivery and hold it in your hands if you need it. If you redeem a gold ETF, an investor will receive the cash equivalent and not the gold.

The advantage of buying physical gold such coins like a Krugerrand or a gold bar, is you own the gold. It is an asset that you can store outside the financial system. If you rely on a financial institution holding your gold or interest in it like an ETF, you are exposed to “counterparty risk”. The risk they may default or fail to meet their obligations. This is why buying physical gold is more practical.

DIAMONDS

Diamonds are a good store of value and a desirable and investable asset class. Like gold, investing in diamonds can give protection against economic crises in the global capital markets. Diamonds can be used as a hedge against inflation and uncertainty in the global forex markets. A kind of insurance against difficult times.

Diamond prices aren’t dependent on variations in exchange rates or on external financial authorities. The prices are set by professionals and published weekly by Rapaport Diamond Prices. The Report provides an international benchmark used by diamond dealers to establish a stable price quotation in all the major markets.

Other benefits of diamonds include:

Diamonds are a very concentrated form of storing wealth. Compare a single diamond to a large gold bar.

Investors have 100% direct ownership of a portable and tangible asset with proven value

Diamonds retain value and performing consistently even throughout economic downturns

Many people see diamonds as having lasting value both monetarily and culturally

Diamonds are not affected by daily oscillations of markets and not as likely to have drastic price changes.

Diamonds are in demand internationally

INVESTING IN DIAMONDS

Unlike investments such as stocks or bonds, diamonds are a physical commodity, so you can buy them anywhere. One of the easiest ways is to buy them online. To be clear, we are talking about buying loose diamonds. Diamond jewelry is another subject. It is also more difficult to ascertain the quality of a diamond if it is in a setting.

Diamonds have consistently increased in value by 3-5% per year over the last decade, making them the ideal investment choice for those who have time on their side.

There are different types of loose diamonds available in the market. Their shape, size, cut and clarity determine the price that you will be required to pay for them. Because individual diamonds vary so immensely in quality and price, it is vital for investors to be familiar with the Four C’s, Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat Weight.

Certain types of diamonds make sounder investment choices than others. Those that are certified, round in shape, laser inscribed, cut to the highest standard, and with the clearest clarity have the best shot at making you serious money in the long run.

Where to buy loose diamonds?

Many people are afraid to buy diamonds online, but there are reputable vendors available. You just have to do your research and compare their offerings.

You can purchase loose diamonds from a jewelry store, but the chances are you will be paying more because of the markup they need to add. There are many diamond wholesalers where you can get diamonds closer to the Rapaport Diamond Prices report.

So, what is a better investment, gold or diamonds?

Because diamonds and gold both have value and stability, they can be considered complementary assets. There is no need to think which is better, it is just apples and oranges. No portfolio should just be one asset. You need to diversify and diamonds and gold are a good match.

However, if you were to choose between the two, gold would win. The diamond market is complicated if you have just started to invest in the diamonds, and gold is known to be a safe haven even in times of economic fall. Also, looking at the current financial crisis in the US, many experts are predicting that gold prices will skyrocket into the stratosphere.

Investing in anything carries risk. Just do your due diligence and make your choices. Try to find sources that are objective. Information from those who will benefit from your purchase will always encourage you to buy from them, even if it isn’t the wisest investment.

#diamond #gold

[goldstein-diamonds]

Is Buying Gold Jewelry a Good Investment?

Gold jewelry is beautiful and very desirable to many. But does gold jewelry have value as an investment? First, let’s explore gold in general and see if gold itself is a good investment.

Gold is a precious metal that has been used as a store of value, and as valuable jewelry for over 4000 years. Considering its physical properties, gold has always been ideal for a medium of exchange for goods and services.

Gold doesn't corrode, which makes it a store of value that can maintain its worth, unlike assets that depreciate over time. Also, it is rare enough not to be readily available to everyone, but abundant enough to be used as currency, jewelry, and scientific purposes.

It’s shiny and metallic qualities, scarcity, and difficulty of extraction, have made gold a valuable commodity. There are other precious metals, but “Gold” is considered by many to be a good investment. Why?

It is an effective diversifier of an investment portfolio and gives a competitive return when compared to other financial assets such as stocks.

It is seen as the best investment to protect yourself during stock market declines and inflation. History shows that the price of gold rises in times of high inflation.

Compared to all other investment’s gold scores has the highest liquidity. It can be converted to cash any time it is needed. Gold has, for this century, been the best performing and safest asset class.

GOLD JEWELRY AS AN INVESTMENT

Wearable Wealth - for thousands of years, gold was used as money. Long before coins, pure gold jewelry was used as money and used for barter. Gold jewelry was one of the first forms of money that were “wearable wealth.” So, it is not a new idea; it is actually the original way of keeping gold.

One of the advantages of having gold jewelry is its portability. Traveling with it allows you to move from country to country without the hassle of reporting it. When a country asks if you're bringing ten thousand dollars or more of cash or cash equivalents such as stocks and bonds, jewelry is not on the list.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT JEWELRY

If you are going to buy jewelry with the idea in mind of it being an investment, you will want to not just buy any gold jewelry. You should know that there are different grades of gold. Depending on the purity they are rated at 10, 12, 14, 18, 22, or 24 karats.

Most “gold” jewelry you will find today is 14 karats, which is only about 58 percent gold. To get the most gold for your money, go for 22K, which is 91.67% gold or 24K, almost pure gold at 99.99%.

24K jewelry is just a little more valuable than jewelry of the same weight but made with gold of lesser purity. For the small price difference, it is probably better to invest in 22K gold.

Pure gold is very soft and easy to shape and mold into tiny pieces, but it can break and is easily scratched. For that reason, you will find more 22K gold jewelry for sale than 24K gold as it’s stronger and more durable.

INVESTMENT GRADE GOLD JEWELRY

When buying gold jewelry as an investment, you will want to look for “investment-grade jewelry.” This is defined as jewelry as a store of value that can appreciate over time. Other factors to look at that can make gold jewelry investment grade are:

Who made it? Was it made by famous a quality jeweler or manufacturer?

Type and quality of gemstone(s) if included in the design

The rarity or impending depletion

There are companies that sell jewelry for people who are looking to make an investment. But if you just look at these factors, you can find jewelry that can make a good investment.

Some of the advantages of investment-grade gold jewelry besides future monetary gain are:

Portability - traveling and transporting money is easier and is always accessible.

Wealth Transfer – leaving wealth to your heirs by way of transferring while you are alive can be done in a more straightforward way as a gift.

Taxes – Gold jewelry has less tax and reporting complexity.

 VALUE OF GOLD VS. THE JEWELRY

Keep in mind when you buy a particular piece of Jewelry, it is going to cost more than the value of the gold it is made with at that time. There is, of course, a markup by the jeweler. Now that doesn’t sound like a good deal when you can buy just gold at the market price plus a little for the dealer.

What you have to think about is the future price of gold. If that goes up then you are closer to making a profit. With the way things are going now with the financial situation in the USA and the world at large, it is very possible for the gold price to go way higher.

However, investing in any precious metals always carries some risk as the market fluctuates wildly. But in general, gold has always been an asset to have in the worst of circumstances. Gold jewelry can be a great form of insurance in depressions or recessions. In the meantime, you can enjoy wearing them.

GOLD JEWELRY, AN ASSET WORTH HAVING

When you buy jewelry, just think of it as acquiring an asset, which it is. But an investment should make you money. If it doesn’t do that, then buying gold jewelry may not be a good investment. Investing in anything whether gold, jewelry, stocks, bonds, commodities, or others, you need to study the market and be wise in your decisions.

You can always find a professional investment consultant to guide you – if you have money you are willing to risk and it meets your financial goals.

There is no form of money like investment-grade gold jewelry. It is more portable, more discreet, and retains its value like few investment opportunities do over time. At the very least, beautiful gold jewelry is a gift to give loved ones with lasting value.

#gold #accessories #jewelry

[goldstein-diamonds]

Diamond alternatives for Engagement Rings

An engagement ring represents a promise of love for a lifetime. A commitment to until “death do we part.” That’s a heavy message for one small piece of jewelry to hold.

People often associate an engagement ring with having the traditional center stone of a diamond. It wasn’t until the middle of the 20th century that this became the expected design.

MARKETING GENIUS

In 1938, De Beers, a company that controlled the world supply of rough diamonds, saw that the sale of diamonds and their popularity was on a decline. This was during the great depression so diamonds were seen as something only for the rich. A massive advertising campaign was implemented. Apparently, it worked. From 1938 to 1941, diamond sales increased by 55%.

It was only 80 years ago this happened. Now it is so much a part of our culture that the ultimate symbol of love is a diamond engagement ring. The diamond is now generally regarded as the premier gem of the world.

Weddings and engagement rituals are ancient. Before De Beers, many actually preferred colored precious stones, such as rubies and sapphires.

Here are 10 stones that are used are for engagement rings by top jewelers:

AMETHYST

A variety of crystalline quartz that’s the traditional birthstone for February. Its color is a clear purple or bluish-violet, so also called violet-quartz. The word amethyst comes from the Greek word amethustos, meaning not drunken. Construed to mean it was a remedy for drunkenness. A good amethyst is a deep purple color (like wine) and perfectly transparent throughout. Wear this engagement ring and the bride to be will stay sober!

AQUAMARINE

Aquamarine is Latin for seawater. March’s birthstone was said to calm waves and keep sailors safe at sea. It was also said to enhance the happiness of marriages and is also the gem of the 19th wedding anniversary, so this may be a good choice for your engagement ring. The best Aquamarine gems have high clarity and clear transparency with blue to slightly greenish blue hues.

CATS EYE

Cat's Eye is a highly polished gemstone with a rounded or convex top with no faceting. It shows a narrow band of concentrated light going across the width of the stone. This effect is known as chatoyancy, a French word signifying a changeable, undulating luster, like the eye of a cat in the dark, led to it being sold as "cat's-eye."

A well-established term in the precious stone trade, there are other minerals that exhibit chatoyancy. The true cat's-eye is cymophane, a variety of chrysoberyl, a mineral resembling beryl in containing the element beryllium, but otherwise distinct.

EMERALDS

Emerald is a general trade designation for various green precious and semi-precious stones and not, in the jewelry trade, the specific term of any gem mineral. Well-known varieties include emerald and aquamarine, which are both a mineral called beryl.

Beryl, of the accepted green emerald hue, is the true or standard emerald. The green beryl, excepting in its color, is the same mineral as aquamarine, golden, and other variously colored beryl’s. One of the rarest of gems is flawless emerald-hued beryl.

GARNET

Birthstone of January, garnet is a name applied to a variety of gem minerals red or brownish-red. Almandite, a stone of rich cherry, claret, or blood-red color is the precious garnet. It also occurs in a wide variety of colors, red, green, yellow, orange, brown, pink, purple, gray, black.

OPAL

The birth-stone of October. The “Precious” Opal is one of the most individual of gems of all the opaque minerals. It reveals the most beautiful play “play-of-color.” “Black Opals” are another form of opal and the most valuable, due to its dark body tone and the vibrant play of color. Queen Victoria gave opals to each of her daughters at their marriage, so this stone has a long association with marriage.

RUBIES

Ruby is the most valuable variety of the corundum mineral species, which also includes sapphire. Rubies can command the highest per-carat price of any colored stone. This makes ruby one of the most important gems in the colored stone market. It may also be out of the reach of some who want it for their engagement ring.

SAPPHIRE

The stone of April is the symbol of constancy, truth, and virtue. Like the ruby, it is corundum, a crystalline form of aluminum oxide, and the name " sapphire " is generally applied to corundum of any color except red. More specifically, the name is applied to blue specimens, the desired tints being royal blue, velvet blue, and cornflower blue. A characteristic of this variety of corundum is, that occasionally its color effected by artificial light differs from that manifested in natural light, being generally less brilliant.

TOPAZ

Yellow is the color generally associated with the topaz, yet topaz is sometimes colorless or may present almost any color. Traditionally the birthstone for November, Topaz is either transparent or translucent; the colors including wine, amber, honey, and straw-yellow, pale blue to pale green of many shades, greyish, reddish, and white.

TURQUOISE

A popular gem mineral today, as it was anciently with the Persians and Native Americans. Its color is various shades of bright blue like a cloudless sky or robin's egg blue. Topaz actually has a wide color range that includes various tones and saturations of green, yellow, orange, red, pink, and purple.

Colorless topaz is plentiful and is often treated to give it a blue color. Topaz is also pleochroic, meaning that the gem can show different colors in different crystal directions. Known for thousands of years as a holy stone and a bringer of good fortune, your marriage will certainly be successful using this for your engagement ring!

CREATE A UNIQUE ENGAGEMENT RING

So, there you have it, a selection of alternatives to diamonds for your engagement ring. There are many more actually. So wide and so interesting is the subject of precious stones. 

Take your time and find one that matches your style, budget, and anything that represents the special relationship you have with your partner. You can then have a jeweler create a unique and personal design for you based on the diamond alternative you choose. 

#engagementring #diamond

[goldstein-diamonds]

A Beginners Guide to Vintage Jewelry

If you look up the definition of “Vintage” you will get some different results. One will say something has to be At least 50 years old and one will say 20 years old. Many will just call any old jewelry vintage even if it is “antique,” which is technically something that is one hundred years old or more.

The term ‘Vintage’ first appeared in the early 15th century, taken from the French vendage, meaning ‘grape harvest.’ Now it is used to describe items from the past, like clothing, cars, furniture, watches, and jewelry. Not quite sure how it got from harvesting grapes to meaning old things, unless it has something to do with good wine is aged.

The term has been used so much by jewelers that even Victorian jewelry, which is the period of 1835 to 1900, is listed in vintage jewelry collections. Anything as far back as 1900 would be over one hundred years old. At the time this post is written it would be 120 years old. Now think about it, if you just go back 20 years – jewelry from the year 2000 would be vintage!

The term is also used to describe something representative of a principal style of a particular period, not just any old item. Another image the term vintage evokes is an old item that has certain nostalgic value. There is also an idea that vintage pieces are of higher quality.

Costume jewelry

When we talk about vintage jewelry, in general, there are two categories. One is ‘fine’ jewelry, which is made with gold, silver and precious stones. And then there is ‘costume jewelry, which is categorized separately from fine jewelry, as it is usually made with inexpensive materials and imitation gems.

True costume jewelry became popular in the 1930s. Very often when vintage jewelry is mentioned it is costume jewelry, because a lot was made as a more affordable product during the depression. While fine jewelry will be more valuable generally, there is costume jewelry that can be worth a good amount. For the average collector, it can be an affordable choice. Costume jewelry will hold its value and remains highly collectible.

Retro jewelry

You will also hear the term ‘Retro’ used interchangeably with vintage. But actually, there is a difference between these two words. Retro is something patterned after an older style. It doesn’t necessarily have to be old or from a particular time period, but it resembles or imitates trends and tendencies of the past. This is not to be confused with the Retro Era.

Art Deco Period

For now, we will call any items from 1920 on - vintage. This would start in what is called the Art Deco Period (1920-1939). In the 1920s Art Deco made use of bold contrasting colors, stylized floral decorations, spiral motifs and precise use of curves, circles, ovals, and octagonal panels.

But in the 1930s the trend was to get rid of all unneeded ornaments. Curves became definite geometric lines, shapes were streamlined and green, red and blue were used heavily in much of the jewelry. Also, in the 1930s "white jewelry" was all the rage. Platinum, white gold, and silver were used and set with diamonds and became the focus in engagement rings. Emeralds, sapphires, and rubies, were also featured.

Some of the most popular jewelry types during the Art Deco Period include:

Bold cocktail rings

Diamond watches

Double-clip brooches

Elaborately decorated accessories

Long pendants and earrings

Multiple bangle bracelets

Retro Period 1935 - 1950

The Retro period echoed the changes that came with the beginning and end of World War II. During the war, platinum couldn’t be used for jewelry, as it was needed for the war effort. Designers began to experiment with yellow, rose, and green gold. Jewelry was eye-catching and extraordinary, but for a modest price.

These vintage jewelry styles were elaborate, big, and colorful with a distinct air of old Hollywood glamour. The name retro referred to the elements being inspired by previous periods. But unlike the Art Deco style, soft curves and feminine motifs were emphasized. With large colorful gemstones cut in oversized rectangles, it was a bigger, bolder and more exciting look than previous periods.

Some of the most popular jewelry types during the Retro Period include:

​Brooches

​Charm Bracelets

​Covered Watches

​Large, Hollowed Necklaces

Articulated Jewelry

Clip-on earrings

Rings

Most Collectible Vintage Jewelry

Two of the main things to look for when buying vintage jewelry is the particular designers and condition the items are in. A famous designer’s name on a piece adds a great deal of value. Some collectors just buy certain designers or designers from a certain period. A piece marked by a designer can be a great find.

Some of the most collectible vintage jewelry includes designers:

Alice

Boivin

Boucheron

Cartier

Coro

Giovanni

Monet

Suzanne Belperron

Triffari

Van Cleef & Arpels

Weis

Lisner

For vintage costume jewelry, look for designers:

Boucher

Carnegie

Chanel

Ciner

Coro

Eisenberg

Kramer

Mariam Haskall

Sarah Coventry

Trifari

Yves St Laurent

Hobe

Buying and Collecting Vintage Jewelry

Beware of sellers who offer pieces that are imitations of real vintage pieces. Brand new pieces made in an older fashion does not make the item vintage. The year it was made is what makes a piece of jewelry vintage. Trying to date and evaluate jewelry can be a tricky business, so find a reliable and reputable jeweler to buy from or sell and item to.

True Vintage Jewelry is worth collecting and the pieces were made to last, so they are just as beautiful today as they were in the past. Keep them as an heirloom to leave to your family or just as an investment. It is just plain fun hunting and discovering unusual or rare items.

If you want to start a collection or expand your own, there are tremendous selections online from many dealers. As mentioned before, just look for well known and reputable dealers. Do your research and learn how to identify clues as to the authenticity of your vintage jewels.

[goldstein-diamonds]

Cheap Vintage Costume Jewelry Vs Valuable Vintage Jewelry

Vintage Jewelry refers to jewelry that is at least 20 years old. Victorian, Edwardian, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, and Retro are some of the most famous styles. These were created in the early 1900s. If they are 100 years older or more, they are considered antique. These early era styles inspired the design of vintage costume jewelry from the 1950s to the 1990s.

You will often hear vintage jewelry referred to as “costume jewelry.” What is the difference between “costume jewelry” and “vintage jewelry?” There is a big difference in value in most cases. Costume jewelry is very stylish but is usually not made with real gold or precious stones, so its value is considerably less.

There are 3 things that have the most influence on the value of any single piece of jewelry, vintage or modern. What it is made of, who made it, and the quality of craftsmanship.

First, to determine whether an item is cheap vintage costume jewelry or more valuable vintage jewelry, look at what it is made with. To do that you need to understand the 3 main types of jewelry and how they are made.

Gold Plated

Vintage costume jewelry was most often plated. A base metal or a mixture of base metals such as copper, tin or zinc was electroplated with several very thin (microns) layers of gold or silver. Some may be plated on silver instead of base metals. “Vermeil” refers to gold plated over a silver base.

The base metal in older vintage costume jewelry pieces doesn’t tarnish easily through the thin layer of gold. Most manufacturers of modern costume jewelry only plate costume jewelry one time, so it is more likely to tarnish. So, if a piece is tarnished, it’s probably not real vintage, just an imitation of older styles.

Gold Filled

The term “gold-filled” is a misnomer. Gold-filled is a process that pressure bonds a layer or layers of gold to a base metal. Unlike gold plated vintage jewelry, it won’t tarnish, rub off or turn colors. The thickness of the gold layer in gold filled vintage pieces varied depending on the maker but is significantly thicker than regular gold plating. Gold-filled pieces have more gold and are higher quality than gold-plated jewelry, so will be more valuable. Gold-filled items may have the sign “GF” after the karat number.

Solid Gold

Solid gold jewelry has no layering or base metal core. This, of course, would be the most valuable. Add to it who made it, the craftsmanship, and additionally how vintage or antique it is, and the value can go sky-high.

Keep in mind that solid gold does not mean it is pure gold. Solid pieces are usually an alloy of gold and other metals like silver, platinum, copper, or zinc. Pure gold is too soft to wear every day. The purity of this mixture is measured in karats. As the higher the karat number the higher the gold content and price.

Gold purity scale in karats

24 K = 99.9% Pure

22 K = 91.6% Pure

18 K = 75% Pure

14 K = 58.5% Pure

12K = 50% Pure

9 K = 37.5% Pure

European jewelry will markings will be in a measure of “fineness.”  99.9% Pure in Fineness will be 999 91.6% Pure will be 916 etc.

How to tell the difference between Gold Plated, Gold Filled, and Solid Gold vintage jewelry.

One way to tell what a particular piece of jewelry is made with is to look for any markings. Intentionally hidden places and very small in size they can tell you what you are dealing with.

Gold-plated jewelry may be stamped with “GP” or you may also see GEP, which means “gold electroplated” and RGP indicating “rolled gold plate. Rolled gold plate is another variance of gold plating that has been produced by mechanically bonding a thin layer of gold to both sides of a thick base metal such as brass. RGP has a little more gold than electroplated types. Gold-filled jewelry may be marked with “GF”

There are countless different jewelry marks. Vintage and antique markings will vary considerably as standardization in modern times has increased. There are tremendous resources online to search for gold marking indications.

Knowledgeable jewelers are really the best way to find out whether your item has any value, whether it is valuable vintage jewelry or just cheap vintage or modern costume jewelry. However, doing some basic research first may save you a wasted trip to the jewelers to find out it wasn’t worth much.

Designer signed

Another way to ascertain the value of a piece of any type of jewelry, vintage or not, is to look for signatures. Similar to a logo, these can change over the years, but the name can tell you a lot about the value. Famous names like Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli, Eisenburg, DeRosa, Trifari and Hobe are just a few.

Signed pieces do not necessarily indicate higher quality than unsigned pieces. Vintage jewelry can be of high quality, no matter who made it. And the designer may not have a signature, just the company that made it will be visible.

Vintage or not?

A lot of people will put the word vintage in the description of the item. if you're not careful you might miss where they say “vintage-inspired.” This just means that it is not really a vintage piece it is just made today just look like a vintage item.

One way that you can tell when looking jewelry online right away if it might be a vintage-inspired piece is the picture. If it looks like a stock photo or like it's something from a catalog, that's probably just a mass-produced piece and the seller probably has 100 of them.

So, if there are not a lot of pictures and you just see one stock photo, that's probably your first clue that this is not truly a vintage piece. Someone who is really selling a true vintage piece will take photos from different angles and show the stones and all the features.

[goldstein-diamonds]

Vintage Watches Vs Modern Watches Vs Apple Watch

Deciding whether to buy a vintage watch versus buying a modern watch like an Apple Digital watch boils down to what you are looking for.

If you’re a collector you will probably be looking for a vintage watch. If you just want a watch that tells time accurately, a newer watch does that. Do you want one that is fashionable to wear like fine jewelry? Vintage can give you that, but there are many beautifully designed high-quality, modern watches available today, so you could go either way.

If you are attracted to the vintage look of yesteryear, there are some remakes of vintage designs that look and function better than the originals. Should you invest in a classic vintage watch with a long history and prestige? Or on the other end of the scale, should you purchase a computerized Smartwatch with all the bells and whistles? Do you really need all those features?

With so many watches and so many types of watches on the market, you should be able to find one that suits your fancy. But with so many choices, how can you make the right choice? To compare you need to look at the pros and cons of each kind of watch, before choosing which one is better for your lifestyle, needs, style, and value.

Comparing Watch Types

What makes a watch vintage is the age. Anything 20 years old or older is considered vintage. (If it is 100 years old it becomes an antique.) There is no set definition of what a “modern” watch is. We could say it is one currently in production and made with the latest technology and materials. Let’s go with that for this study. Whether vintage or modern, you have to consider the type it is to really make a good choice.

Two Kinds of Watches

There are two basic types of watches. Analog mechanical watches, and electronic digital watches which have no moving parts. You can also add to that list a third type - mechanical watches that power a digital (numerical) display. These were made as far back as the 1890s. What’s commonly called a digital watch today usually refers to the electronically powered type.

Since the first commercial electronic digital wristwatch was introduced in 1970 by Hamilton, which was 50 years ago, there are many electronic watches out there that are “vintage.” When talking about the pros and cons of a vintage watch, if it is a mechanical or electronic type will be two different things.

Join the Mechanical Watch Movement!

To complicate things, there are different mechanical watch “movements,” the mechanism that drives the hands and complications of the watch, which have their pros and cons. (“complications” the technical term for features such as a calendar, chronograph or dual time zone.)

When buying a watch of any kind, don’t base your choice on just the exterior of the watch. If you have an eye for detail you will appreciate the mechanism inside the watch. Carefully crafted movements define a masterpiece and make it distinct from an ordinary watch.

Three mechanical movement types:

Quartz – Powered by a battery that sends an electrical signal through crystal quartz, the movement makes the second hand move in individual ticks.

Pros: Keeps exact time and never needs winding.

Cons: Battery needs replacing every 2 to 4 years.

Mechanical – second-hand moves in a smooth motion.

Pros: A quality mechanical watch with proper care, will last a lifetime.

Cons: Requires manual winding for the movement to operate

Automatic – A self-winding watch where the mainspring is wound automatically by the Kinetic energy from the natural motion of the wearer's arm.

Pros: With regular wear, the watch continues to function, no winding needed.

Cons: Automatic’s are usually thicker because of additional rotors.

Wind them up!

Many people actually see winding as a kind of ritual. So, if you are a “winder,” an older vintage mechanical watch will be a good choice. Vintage and luxury watch collectors prefer mechanical movements. Many mechanical watches are designed as a piece of art with incredible attention to detail. Some are often engineered to withstand extreme physical conditions such as Rolex Submariner watches, which work even in ocean depths. 

Is Vintage better?

Vintage watches seem to have something special that makes them more desirable than modern models. Their history, important world events, famous people who wore the watch, it’s pedigree, who designed it, all of these make them more interesting and valuable. Also, the farther back you go in time the less there are on the market, so each vintage timepiece can be unique and special, unlike newly mass manufactured models.

Vintage mechanical watches also have an advantage over quartz, battery-powered and electronic digital watches. Mechanical timepieces can be serviced and repaired while many quartz and digital watches have components that are no longer in production.

Vintage makes financial sense

Value and investment-wise, there are some great deals on beautiful vintage watches that can be found for under $2,000 whereas a modern watch of similar elegance can cost $5000 to $6000. A new watch isn’t the wisest investment. The moment you take it out of the store, its resale value drops substantially. The same with very high-end watches also. If you buy wisely, older classic watches can increase in value as they become rarer and more sought after by collectors.

Modern Watches

When it comes to comparing modern watches to vintage, it gets a little trickier. There are so many watchmakers now producing watches in great numbers and of all types that it can be overwhelming choosing. If you're looking for a modern watch, find one in good condition used if you want to save.

The first thing you want to be aware of when you're looking at a modern watch versus a vintage watch is the differences in how the watch is made. Just because a watch is vintage, doesn’t necessarily mean it is made with better materials.

For example, older Rolex timepieces were produced with crystals made from acrylic plastic. Acrylic crystals are much less scratch-resistant than sapphire crystals, which are highly scratch-resistant. High-quality watchmakers like Rolex are constantly improving the materials they use.

Conversely, modern watches can be made cheaply using inferior materials to many vintage timepieces. If they are “vintage” that means they’ve been around for a good long time, meaning they were made well with durable materials. Many vintage watches are technological marvels in their own right. But there has also been a lot of progress in these modern times in material and technology.

Smartwatches

Smartwatches such as the Apple Watch have been around for a few years now. Released on April 24, 2015, they quickly became the best-selling wearable device with 4.2 million sold. Only 5 years old at this point makes them the most “modern watch.”

But how do you compare it to any other watch? It is basically a computer with 32GB of storage or a mobile phone that you strap on your wrist. No fancy diamonds decorating it, no moving hands, you just change virtual watch faces digitally. A space-age timepiece that gives you instant notifications, tracks workouts and does much more than a normal watch.

Since it is an electronic digital watch, it has a battery. That is one of the few things similar to traditional watches, besides telling time and date. It keeps working for about 1.5 days on a battery charge. 

Many companies have jumped on the bandwagon to manufacture Smart Watches. Samsung, Mobvoi, Fitbit Versa and others. If you are a gadget lover, a smartwatch may be just what you want.

But comparing these modern marvels of technology value-wise to vintage watches, the latest Series 5 Apple Watch price starts at $399 and has an estimated resale value is 44% after one year. So, as an investment, a vintage watch would be a better choice if you have the right one.

Visit Goldstein Diamonds

Vintage, modern or electronic digital, the watch you choose to wear says a lot about you. Take your time and do your research. Hopefully, this blog post will give you some guidance. If you want some professional advice, just come on into Goldstein Diamonds and we will be glad to help find the perfect watch for you. You can also call us at 1 480 945 4367 or fill out our contact form. If you have a vintage, modern or smartwatch you would like to sell, we buy! 

[goldstein-diamonds]

Loose Diamond Worth | Goldstein Diamonds | GIA-certified Jeweler

How Much Is A Loose Diamond Worth and Where to Sell Them

A loose diamond, one not set in a ring, another type of jewelry or mounting, is the best type of diamond to know its true worth. Diamonds must be loose to be graded fully, otherwise, the value can only be estimated by a buyer. It is very difficult to know the 4 Cs of your diamond’s grading — Color, Clarity, Cut, and Carat, when it is mounted in some way.

If you want to sell a diamond, have it removed from its setting by a professional jeweler.

The difficulty of calculating a diamonds worth

There is a lot of things to know about diamonds, different aspects that define its value and desirability.

Did you know that all diamonds are NOT clear like glass? Most diamonds are brown or yellow in color. Jeweler’s and consumers favor colorless diamonds. There are diamonds in deep hues of red, orange, green, blue, pink, purple, and violet. If you have one of those, you’re in luck, they are very rare and sell for high prices!

Unlike other gems, diamonds have a set international market price similar to gold. But pricing a diamond is much more complicated than gold. While an ounce of gold is the same as any other ounce gold, diamonds are graded on four factors, the “4 Cs,” to determine their value.

The Four Cs of Diamond Pricing

Having an understanding of the 4 C’s is necessary as a buyer or seller of a diamond. The 4 Cs of diamond grading — Color, Clarity, Cut, and Carat is the basic grading factors that begin estimating a diamonds value and its quality.

1.      COLOR

Diamond color is actually a lack of color. The more colorless a diamond is, the better.

The GIA (Gemological Institute of America) grades diamonds from D to Z, with D being the most colorless, and Z containing noticeable brown or yellow tint.

This range of diamond color distinctions are very hard to detect to the untrained eye, but will greatly influence diamond quality and price.

2.      CLARITY

The Clarity grade evaluates how clean a diamond is from both inclusions (characteristics that occur inside the gemstone or flaws, and blemishes (external flaws that affect the clarity characteristic of a diamond.) Clarity is graded by the GIA from FL (Flawless) to SI2 (Slightly Included 2.)

One reason diamonds are very popular is how they react with light. Imperfections inside and outside the diamond can interfere with its optical properties.

3.      CUT

The cut refers to the shaping of a diamond, but NOT the shape. It is the characteristic that has the greatest impact on its beauty. A rough diamond has no shine, it only sparkles when it is cut expertly. The proportion, symmetry, and polish determine how light bounces off each angle and facet.

The grade for a diamond cut ranges from poor to excellent. Precise artistry and workmanship deliver the brightness, fire, and scintillation that makes them so enticing.

4.      CARAT

A carat is the weight of the diamond, one carat defined as 200 milligrams. Larger diamonds are rarer so price increases with carat weight. However, two diamonds of equal carat weight may have different prices depending on the three other factors of the 4Cs: Color, Clarity, and Cut.

Each carat can be subdivided into 100 ‘points’ allowing for precise measurements to the hundredth decimal place. Your jeweler may refer to a diamond that weighs 0.25 carats as a ‘twenty-five pointer.’ Weights greater than one carat are expressed in carats and decimals. A 1.08 carat stone would be described as ‘one point oh eight carats.’

How much is your loose diamond is worth

You can see from the above discussion of how a diamond is priced that its complicated to determine how much your loose diamond is worth. How are you supposed to know the quality grades for the color, clarity, and cut of your diamond without some expertise in diamonds? You can learn about the quality of our loose diamond by getting a “Diamond Certification.”

Diamond Certification is a document, or grading certificate, from an objective 3rd party lab that describes the diamonds 4Cs and other aspects. If your diamond doesn’t have one, which it should if you purchased it from a reputable dealer, then you need a grading certificate. This can be provided by the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) or another reputable grading lab.

Once you know the weight of your diamond (carats) and how the color, clarity, and cut are graded, you can look for ones with similar gradings. Retail prices of similar diamonds will give you an idea of how much your diamond could be worth. There is a lot of information online, just start an internet search, or visit your local jewelry shop.

However, the amount you will really get if you want to sell it to a jeweler will be less. That’s because a jeweler can purchase diamonds in bulk at wholesale prices, which are much lower. A diamond similar to yours can be bought by them for much less from a diamond dealer, so they aren’t going to give you the full price.

Here is a general idea of how much your diamond may be worth knowing only carats. Bigger diamonds are often worth more. But remember a diamond's value is measured using all of the 4Cs, and not just carat weight, but this will give you a range of the possible worth.

0.5 carat diamond $1,500

1 carat diamond $6,250 to $17,250

2 carat diamond $21,000 to $67,500

Where to Sell Your Loose Diamond

Deciding to sell a loose diamond can be an emotional decision, especially if it is an heirloom, something your grandmother or other special person bequeathed to you. But you really need the money so you want to get the best price for it. You don't want to find that your treasured possession was lost for a paltry sum when you find out its real worth later.

Do your research first, learn how a diamond is priced, and before you go to see anyone about selling your loose diamond, make sure they have GIA certified gemologists available for an appraisal. Your diamond buyer should be informed about the market and able to answer any questions you have about diamonds.

Sell your diamonds to Goldstein Diamonds

If you’ve decided to sell your diamond, we will buy it! Goldstein Diamonds is a GIA-certified jeweler always looking for quality stones of any size. We offer confidentiality and immediate payment and accept trade-ins. Contact us today and let’s get you a fair price for your loose diamonds!