Gemstones Test | General

Answer: Ruby and Sapphire

The term "Ruby" refers to all red varieties of corundum, while sapphires can be almost any other color of the rainbow, including blue, purple, yellow, orange and even hot pink and colorless. Rubies and Sapphires are the second hardest gemstone next to diamonds.

Answer: Ametrine

When fine quality, ametrine is quite a lovely stone. High quality ametrine shows vivid yellow and purple, with a sharp line of color separation. It is most often found in emerald cut, to better accentuate the color separation, though the stone is quite beautiful when used in other cuts as well.

Answer: Princess

The princess cut is a brilliant square. Other flat-sided cuts inlude the emerald cut, triangle cut, and radiant cut. Obviously, oval has no flat sides. Pear is a teardrop shape. Marquises are cut like a pointed oval or eye shape. Trillion is a triangular cut with slightly bowed sides.

Answer: None of these

Diamonds occur naturally in almost every color of the rainbow as well as black and colorless. Any color besides yellow, orange or brown is very uncommon, but of these unusual colors, most uncommon is purple. Also, these colors most often present themselves as a tint, rather than true deep color, so finding a diamond with any rich coloring is very rare.

Answer: Pearl

The pearl, birthstone for June, is produced when a grain of sand or other irritant is present in an oyster. Most gemstone pearls are cultured, meaning the 'irritant' is placed deliberately and is uniform in shape, to better ensure the resulting pearls will be round and without blemish. Both freshwater and saltwater oysters produce pearls, and both can be 'cultured'.

Answer: Aquamarine

Aquamarine, which is from the Latin 'water of the sea', is, appropriately, a lovely pale blue or blue-green color. It is a fairly hard mineral, but does have a tendency to crack if hit hard by or against something.

Answer: Chatoyancy

"Chatoyancy" refers to a bright band of light being reflected across a stone. Examples include the better known "tiger's eye" quartz. Asterism is similar to Chatoyancy, only the fibers are not parallel, they run in three directions, causing the light to be reflected in a star shape, as you might see in a star sapphire.

Answer: Opal

Often called opalescence, 'color play' is only found naturally in opal. Some varieties of opal lack this color play, including Mexican Fire Opal, which is a transparent orange stone.

Answer: Spinel

Spinel occurs in every color of the rainbow, and often its colors are vivid and clean. It is not a well known gemstone, even though it is quite lovely in all of its colors, and can fetch quite a good price.

Answer: Alexandrite

Alexandrite, discovered on the birthday of Czar Alexander II of Russia and duly named, turns from a yellow or blue-green in natural light to a stunning strawberry red in artificial light. Even mediocre examples of this gemstone are VERY rare.