Gemstones: Understanding, Identifying, Buying

Well recommended

Excellent, particularly (but not just) for beginners. Considering the book is only 160 pages, it is packed with tons of useful information. I like to shop estate sales and antique stores and wanted at least a fighting chance at recognizing fakes. This book makes me feel a little less vulnerable.Besides a lot of interesting tidbits on individual gems, the book has appendices and other information that are extremely helpful for quick reference. Here is a bullet list of (in my opinion) the books high points.• A Glossary of terms used in describing gems and their properties.• A list of color vs type of gem. As a total novice, this is where I start identifying things I’ve already bought. It at least helped me narrow down the possible stones for my web search on images. I am pretty sure my main mystery stone, is genuine yellow citrine.• A complete list of gemstone properties (i.e specific gravity, refractive index, hardness & crystal form.) Way beyond my needs but great info.• A translation table (between English, German, French, Italian and Spanish) on some of the more common terms & descriptive info.• A one-page list of reputable web sites, which is half the battle of buying.• I am big on Marquise cuts. This book has no marquise pics but it does have line drawings of the cuts and crystal systems• History, Myths and Legends was an interesting section that was totally unexpected. It even touched briefly on crystal healing theory and beliefs.• A chart (using diamond as the base reference) on size per carat. e.g. I had no idea “a 1 carat ruby is 13.35% smaller overall than a 1 carat diamond”.• Hallmarks for the different base and plate metals, including traditional fineness symbols and Assay offices stamps. I found out one of my rings is platinum, not a different fineness for silver as I originally thought.• A section on organic gems that I did not even know were classified as gems (i.e. ivory, abalone, jet & coral).• Other references for further reading• Last but not least the book has 3 value charts. One for Tanzanite, one for diamonds and one for gemstones.So much packed into so few pages. A great bargain by anyone’s standards

This book is thorough and can be pretty helpful for the amateur and the novice. Great work. Also shipped and delivered pretty fast. Thank you.

Excellent book for learning about Gem stonesGood quality text and pictures

Easy to read and understand