Gems and Silver

[frigg50]

I was told the other day that precious gems are only set in gold and never in silver, is this true? also that most of the gems sold over the internet are not of true quality. I am really confused now about some diamonds I got and their value.
Any answers out there?

 

[strmrdr]

The Internet is an awfully big place and there are different levels of honesty out there so just saying "the Internet" means nothing.

Precious gemstones have been set in silver for centuries.
It is less common today as semi-precious stones are usually used with silver but as gold and plat rise in cost I think silver will stage a come back.
There are several new tarnish resistant silver alloys on the market and honestly I expect it too take off.

short answer what you were told can be true but it is far from the whole story!

 

[peter_hanson]

If you have a silver ring with a diamond it doesn''t mean the diamond isn''t real. I don''t know where you bought the ring''s?
On ebay you see many lab-created diamonds in silver.

If you doubt, go to the jeweller.

 

[Pandora II]

Date: 4/2/2008 8:51:35 AM
Author:frigg50
I was told the other day that precious gems are only set in gold and never in silver, is this true? also that most of the gems sold over the internet are not of true quality. I am really confused now about some diamonds I got and their value.
Any answers out there?

Take a look at cherrypicked.com and palagems.com and then see if you can find gemstones as good as some of theirs in the B&M''s in most cities.

My tsav came from Palagems and I have had managers in Tiffany, Graff, Cartier and the biggest gem testing lab in London ask to take a closer look as it is apparently one of the best they have seen.

I buy all my stones on the internet these days - unless I am asking someone I know via the internet to find them for me. There is plenty of rubbish out there too though.

NB There is no such thing as ''precious'' and ''semi-precious'' - it is all subjective. A crap ruby is just that and will be pretty cheap. A fine paraiba tourmaline will cost a massive amount more - should it therefore be considered ''semi-precious'' just because it''s not ruby/sapphire/emerald?

It''s a term that can cause a lot of wrong assumptions. People are shocked when I tell them how much they will have to pay per carat for a ''garnet'' - check out the prices for spessartite or tsavorite both of which are garnets.