2007: With the spread of gemology you think most if not all of these tricks should never succeed, but to tell you the truth, today, it does. Synthetic, treated, and imitation gemstones have just become too sophisticated (there are many) + gem testing laboratories are in dilema describing what they see, especially with treatments (nearly all colored stones are treated one way or the other), because they need the trade as well as the consumers to function as a business + gem dealers and jewelers have no time/patience sitting with gem testing instruments to identity/sell their merchandise, because the pereception is if you think like a gemologist you won't be able to buy/sell colored stones, so they leave it to the trade/independant laboratories + the so-called experts for their opinion, and this is where opinions may go right/wrong/misinterpreted + the well-trained fraudsters are also familiar with gemology, treatments, synthetics and imitations + its limitations so they become adept playing their game.
(via The Journal of Gemmology, No.1, Vol.1, January 1947) Robert Webster writes:
Value is an essential concomitant of that type of criminal offence which the legal mind terms ‘stealing by false pretences’ and the jeweler trading in precious stones is a fitting target for this type of trickery. The following notes, based on factual reports and personal experiences, may make interesting and informative reading, and may in some measure prevent others suffering loss through the same pitfalls. Although all the episodes mentioned may not have been fraudulently conceived, most would have, or had, the stricture of the law upon them.
Perhaps it would be wise to remark that no trick of this nature would be effective unless some preparation in the way of the gaining of confidence were first engendered. To walk into a shop, place a four carat zircon on the counter and say ‘I want £700 for this diamond’ would not get a rogue very far with hard-headed businessman of today; but with confidence established suspicion is lulled and almost anything may happen. Indeed, it can be given as an axiom that one is never caught except when haste is the ‘jade’ a ‘breezy’ type of personality or pretty face and a trim figure be the distraction, or when the desire for profit overcomes commonsense.
It is fitting that the diamond be the first stone to consider, for that is the gem most handled by the jeweler and the most likely to be the stone whose simulation leads to chicanery. The substitution of a diamond by a paste imitation does not, at first sight, appear a likely cause of loss, for only an imitation jeweler would come to grief with this fake; it is the amateur who falls for a piece of glass. What member of the trade has not heard of the wonderful bargain bought in a public house for a song? Inevitably it is the jeweler who has the unenviable task of supplying the denouement.
Most jewelers have encountered false diamonds which they glibly term ‘jargoons’ ‘doublets’ or ‘white sapphires’, often totally unaware of the correct interpretation of the names they use. In most of these cases the fake has been the colorless zircon which owes its lack of color to heat treatment and has a high dispersion. Exhibited in a ‘half light’, such stones do show an appreciable resemblance to diamond—providing one does not look for the strong double refraction. Time and time again these zircons have caught the unwary, often the same operator working the same fraud for months on end until Nemesis finally overtakes him.
The diamond doublet, although so often mentioned, does not appear to be so prevalent as is generally supposed. Of three authentic cases known to the writer, one consisted of a crown of true diamonds and a base of glass; in another the base was probably rock crystal; the third, a stone with a two carat spread and mounted with ‘roman’ or ‘gipsy’ setting in a heavy gold ring, caused the jeweler who bought the ring (as dusk, when the light was bad) to lose many pounds. This stone, which the leaders of the jewelry trade considered to be such a dangerous fake that they instituted a ‘broadcast’ caution, was found to have a base of synthetic white spinel.
It is doubtful whether the synthetic white sapphire has ever caused much difficulty, but mention must be made of the artificially produced colorless spinel, if only to comment on the journalistic enthusiasm which caused the ‘diamond scare’ of 1935. These ‘Jourado diamonds’ generally ‘emerald cut’, a style which was then beginning to be favored for diamonds, did momentarily cause confusion, but only for the few hours before the report of the Laboratory Experts was published by press and radio. That these synthetic white spinels have not been entirely neglected by the unscrupulous is recalled by the recent conviction of the Dutchman, Winnser, but this probably more in the nature of substitution than in direct simulation.
Comparatively early in the writer’s career he met with the ‘painted’ diamond. Shown a single stone diamond ring which had been pledged by a gentleman prominent in the theatrical profession, he noticed something ‘not quite right’ about the stone, but lack of experience precluded a definite reason. The opinion of an experienced diamond broker confirmed this suspicion; he washed the stone in hot water, thereby removing the dye from the rear facets, and returned an off-colored yellowish diamond instead of the ‘white’ stone submitted to him. The method used to restore the stone to a white color need not be considered here.
It is questionable whether the inducing of a green color in a diamond by radium emanations, so easily detected by autophotography and spinthariscopic observation, can be called fraudulent, for in the case of the heat treatment of zircons and topazes and the staining of agate, the alteration of hue is not considered to be wrong providing the stone is sold as such; but how often is the radium-treated diamond so sold?
Although having little application to the retail jeweler, the imitation of diamond crystals goes to show to what length the crook fraternity will go in their endeavor to make money by fraud. There have been three authentic cases of ‘diamond octahedra’ which had been found to have been artificially shaped from base material. In two of these cases the material used was synthetic colorless corundum, and for the third case colorless quartz was used.
Most jewelers, knowing all too well the synthetic production of the corundum gems, ruby and sapphire, are wary of dealing with such stones unless they have sound reasons or are backed by a laboratory report, and it is rare that loss is occasioned by such an artifice. That fraud can occur, even with an experienced trader, was made apparent recently when a three-stone ruby ring was bought for some hundred of pounds, it being discovered later that the most important center stone was synthetic.
With respect to emerald, the most likely cause of trouble is surely the composite stone better known as the soude’ emerald, but despite the undoubted fine effect of this counterfeit, the writer cannot recall a single case of fraud involving this stone. The true synthetic emerald which is now being made in America has as yet not invaded this country, and when it does, as surely it will, more care still will be required by the members of our trade.
The painting of the rear facets of pale rubies, sapphires and emeralds in order to enhance their color is too patent and too well known to cause much difficulty, and the same may be said for the older type of garnet-topped doublets. The imitation of the alexandrite by the synthetic version of corundum and spinel does not now appear to worry the trade as it has done in the past, nor, for that matter, do the opal doublets; on the other hand, the orange red synthetic corundum, sometimes called the ‘padparadshca’ is still confused with the fire opal by some people less informed than their neighbors.
Before bringing these few notes to a close, reference must be made to gem pearl, for although the cultured pearl is so well known and so difficult in some cases to detect at sight, that risk is rarely taken. It is with the black pearl that trouble may occur, for artificial coloration may be particularly good, and, rather surprisingly, that hoary textbook fake, the polished hematite sphere, has quite recently shown itself. What probably was the most unusual fake that the writer came across was a necklace of pink beads, bought as coral, which turned out to be vegetable ivory appropriately stained.
With the spread of the science of gemology, most, if not all of these tricks should never succeed, and those enemies of society who perpetuate them be forever put out their nefarious business—but for the frailty of human nature.
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