The Federal Trade Commission’s Guide for the Jewelry, Precious Metals and Pewter Industries

FTC writes:

23.12 Misuse of the words "flawless," "perfect," etc.

(a) It is unfair or deceptive to use the word "flawless" to describe any diamond that discloses flaws, cracks, inclusions, carbon spots, clouds, internal lasering, or other blemishes or imperfections of any sort when examined under a corrected magnifier at 10-power, with adequate illumination, by a person skilled in diamond grading.

(b) It is unfair or deceptive to use the word "perfect," or any representation of similar meaning, to describe any diamond unless the diamond meets the definition of "flawless" and is not of inferior color or make.

(c) It is unfair or deceptive to use the words "flawless" or "perfect" to describe a ring or other article of jewelry having a "flawless" or "perfect" principal diamond or diamonds, and supplementary stones that are not of such quality, unless there is a disclosure that the description applies only to the principal diamond or diamonds.

More info @ http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/jewel-gd.htm

Gem and Crystal Treasures

By Peter Bancroft
A Western Enterprises
Mineralogical Record Bookl
1984 ISBN 0-9613461-1-6

Mineralogical Record Book writes:

Within these pages you will embark on 100 field trips to many of the world’s most exotic gem and crystal mines. You will relive the discovery and earliest days of each deposit, and meet those who worked in and about the mines—shopkeepers, sheriffs, miners, prostitutes, and bad men, all portrayed in 667 black and white illustrations and accompanying text.

Over 320 crystal and gemstone treasures gleaned from these deposits are depicted in full color. Each crystal has been selected as one of the choicest examples available. For the most part, specimens have been photographed in their entirety.

Dr Peter Bancroft has assembled what may be the finest group of gemstone and crystal illustrations ever, augmented by photos of exquisite carvings, faceted gems, and stunning jewelry.

Step back in time and experience human drama as it was—incredible good fortune, stark tragedy, and every conceivable event in between. Marvel at a wealth of gemstones and naturally formed crystals—surely among God’s greatest treasures.

Peter Bancroft writes:
As a small boy I sometimes sat before glowing coals in the fireplace of our darkened living room listening to my father and two uncles spin yarns of the old days. Ours had been a mining family. A great grandfather was chief carpenter and a great uncle was superintendent of the Sutro Tunnel in Virginia City, Nevada. An uncle was paymaster for copper mines at Jerome, Arizona. Another uncle owned the La Noria silver mine in Michoacan, Mexico, and my father had surveyed the Tonopah—Tidewater Railroad into Death Valley, California.

Inspired, I started a modest mineral collection. High school and collegiate courses in mineralogy and geology provided technical background, but also exposure to the beautiful world of stunning gemstones and crystals. I read every available book on mineralogy and mining, but seldom found reference to the men who worked the mines or people who lived in mining towns.

In 1973, I outlined a format for a new book to be titled Gem And Crystal Treasures. It would feature 100 of the world’s classic crystal producing localities. Each of the 100 chapters would concentrate on the human side, the history and lore of these famous deposits. Technical data, extensively covered in treatises shelved in many scientifically oriented libraries, would be kept, for the most part, in low profile.

The finest crystals, carvings, gemstones and jewelry items would be sought out wherever they were to be found n the world to be photographed in color for illustrations. This would require massive cooperation on the part of curators, collectors and photographers, as well as mining companies and various national and local governments.

Mysterious below-ground galleries and tunnels where men labored in constant danger would be profusely illustrated in black and white photography. Selected vignettes would portray the lives and times of miners and townspeople, some of whom were just plain characters.

I planned to visit many of the selected mines, as well as important museums, private collections and archives, and to seek interviews with those whose lives had been intimately connected with the mining of gemstones and crystals.

Eleven years after the project was envisioned, Gem And Crystal Treasures is ready to go to press. Most of the 100 mines have been personally visited and hundred of interviews conducted. Many miles were traveled in every conceivable type of conveyance and not a few were trod along dimly-lit, dank mine tunnels.

The remarkable experiences I have enjoyed while compiling materials for this book are largely due to the friendliness and cooperation of those with whom I have worked; miners, collectors, curators, dealers, cutters, mineralogists and photographers. To them this book with sincerest “Gluck auf (Good Luck)!”

The Federal Trade Commission’s Guide for the Jewelry, Precious Metals and Pewter Industries

FTC writes:

23.11 Definition and misuse of the word "diamond."

(a) A diamond is a natural mineral consisting essentially of pure carbon crystallized in the isometric system. It is found in many colors. Its hardness is 10; its specific gravity is approximately 3.52; and it has a refractive index of 2.42.

(b) It is unfair or deceptive to use the unqualified word "diamond" to describe or identify any object or product not meeting the requirements specified in the definition of diamond provided above, or which, though meeting such requirements, has not been symmetrically fashioned with at least seventeen (17) polished facets.

Note 1 to paragraph (b): It is unfair or deceptive to represent, directly or by implication, that industrial grade diamonds or other non-jewelry quality diamonds are of jewelry quality.

(c) The following are examples of descriptions that are not considered unfair or deceptive:

(1) The use of the words "rough diamond" to describe or designate uncut or unfaceted objects or products satisfying the definition of diamond provided above; or

(2) The use of the word "diamond" to describe or designate objects or products satisfying the definition of diamond but which have not been symmetrically fashioned with at least seventeen (17) polished facets when in immediate conjunction with the word "diamond" there is either a disclosure of the number of facets and shape of the diamond or the name of a type of diamond that denotes shape and that usually has less than seventeen (17) facets (e.g., "rose diamond").

Note 2 to paragraph (c): Additional guidance about imitation and laboratory-created diamond representations and misuse of words "gem," "real," "genuine," "natural," etc., are set forth in 23.23, 23.24, and 23.25.

More info @ http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/jewel-gd.htm

Casino Movie

Memorable quote from the movie:


Ace Rothstein (Robert De Niro): In Vegas, everybody's gotta watch everybody else. Since the players are looking to beat the casino, the dealers are watching the players. The box men are watching the dealers. The floor men are watching the box men. The pit bosses are watching the floor men. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses. I'm watching the casino manager. And the eye-in-the-sky is watching us all.

Cobat Blue Natural Spinels

Gemmology Queensland writes:

Darl cobalt blue spinels from Okkampitiya (Sri Lanka) owe their unusual color to the natural presence of cobalt (up to 5ppm) replacing magnesium. These spinels visually resemble Co-doped synthetic spinels with which they possibly could be confused. However the 1.72 refractive index, 3.60 +/- specific gravity, inertness to both longwave and shortwave ultraviolet light, and the presence of a strong absorption at 458 (460)nm in the visible spectrum the natural cobalt blue spinel readily discriminates it from both its Verneuil and flux-grown look-alike.

How To Swim With Sharks & Stay Sane

In this article there is an interesting perspective on how commodity traders think before they make deals. Those who want to learn the ropes of the gem trade may want to read this article to understand market uncertainities so that they are able to survive in the dog-eat-dog world of gem business.


(via Times News Network) Nidhi Nath Srinivas writes:

Do you need to be a hard-boiled, tough, Svengali-like,Type II alpha male to make money in commodity trading? A quick poll of some top traders says not at all. Which to my mind is good news (unless you are one of those chicks looking for a Nick Leeson kind of man) because it means ordinary persons who don’t have to live on a permanent diet of adrenalin, aspirin and alcohol, stand a fairly good chance.

Yet the ring is not a bed of roses for sissies. The ups and downs can be swift, fear contagious, losses serious and prospects foggy. So how do traders make sense of the market maelstroms and keep sane? As no psychological profile of the average Indian commodity trader exists, we asked three traders, with diverse ages and backgrounds: what were their top two survival tips.

Arun Mahabir (name changed on request), 30, is a successful soft commodity trader with a MNC here. Calm and soft-spoken, he has been in the ring for more than six years now, straight after an MBA from Punjab University. After trading from nine-to-five, he doesn’t hit the nearest pub. His first principle: don’t be greedy. “I believe in a cut-loss theory. Everything doesn’t work according to fundamentals every time. When things go wrong, just cut and get out. There will be plenty more opportunities later, so don’t sulk on a lost one now,’’ he says.

His second principle: junk your gut feel, see the facts. Despite being a New Age professional taught to think out of the box, Mahabir believes data and tables are a young trader’s best friends. “I hate speculating myself. And I don’t believe in luck. The only thing that stands with you in the ring is in-depth analysis of demand and supply,’’ he adds.

Mahabir trades on his company’s account. This means all the money he earns only fetches him a bit extra in bonus. The flip side is that he has plenty of advice and most importantly, a target to meet. “The target is most helpful because then I can pace myself. I don’t chase every trade. If the returns have been good, often I can even relax,’’ he says. His heros: Mark Faber and Jim Rogers.

B Thomas is a seasoned 48-year-old spices trader in Cochin, who has been passionate about the business since 1988. His first rule: get your ego out of the way. “Don’t love any position. If you don’t stick to your cut-off point and over trade, you are doomed,’’ he says.

His second principle: keep numbers in your head to think on your feet. “In Malayalam we call it ‘manakanakku’ or mental maths. You always should have the latest figure of positions and profits in your mind to know what best to do next. Without this, you are handicapped even in the age of online exchanges,’’ Thomas said.

Jojan Malayil, former president of Indian Pepper and Spice Trade Association, comes from a family that has been trading pepper for five generations. His first principle: be strong minded. “The market is volatile.

You need to be able to cope with the ups and downs without letting it affect you. Most of the trading is now speculative and sentiment-driven. One needs to get the fundamentals straight and be tough,’’ he says.

His second principle: case out the exits. “You should know exactly when to enter and exit the market. And don’t trade with shallow pockets. You should have enough funds to take physical delivery. That increases your staying power,’’ Malayil adds. His guru: his father.

Ultimately, the rules boil down to this: you need to be mentally strong and passionate about the business without losing sight of your target, trading strategy or bottomline. One more thing: fundamentals are your only life jacket. Cling to them if you want to get out alive. Even the SAS can’t do better than that.

More info @ http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/How_to_swim_with_sharks__stay_sane/articleshow/1559294.cms

Gem Trader

By Louis Kornitzer
Sheridan House, New York
1939

Louis Kornitzer writes:

I inherit the world of gems.

Many years ago, when I was walking in Northumberland, I came across an old fellow on the banks of the Coquet who was busy making artificial flies. He looked the sort of oddity who is worth a good story or two for the trouble of drawing him out, so without any formal preliminaries beyond that of praising the blueness of the sky and the wetness of the water at our feet I squatted on my heels beside him.

For a long while I had to be content with watching in silence while the taciturn old man continued with his work. But after I had thought to make him free of my tobacco pouch he talked freely as one brother of the weed to another. From youth up it appeared that he had been making flies for the gentry in those parts and for the trade. He was an expert, and no wonder, for he had learned his craft from his father, who had been taught by his father and so back into the mists of time. Not only that, but this singular occupation, which my casual riverside acquaintance had followed all his life, had also been the calling of nearly every member of his family for several generations. One of his brothers, he told me, had gone out to British Colombia, and another to New Zealand, while a third had not gone but had emigrated to Ireland; and all of them, not to mention numerous cousins, second cousins and nephews, were engaged in the fishing fly and tackle business.

While I first thought of writing this book I cast my mind back to that chance meeting on the bank of the Coquet and thought that I and this old chap were in much the same case in the way we had inherited our occupations. He had inherited artificial fly making. I for my part had inherited gem dealing. I had, in other words, inherited the prescriptive right to risk all I had on the dubious chance of earning a living from a somewhat fickle trade.

My great-grandfather on my mother’s side was a pearl merchant, and my grandfather, his son, and at least one of his brothers, one resident in Vienna and the other in London, followed in their father’s footsteps, and my mother herself, first was a wife of man more student than business man and then as a widow, brought up a family of eight children on what she made as a shrewd dealer in gems.

My uncle who stayed in Vienna had no sons by any of the three wives who had sweetened his days, so he adopted a boy when he was nearing seventy and trained him in his ways to make a pearl man of him before the breed die out and leave humanity with no one to supply it with expert knowledge about gems. For he took the métier of our family seriously and thought that the gem world depended upon us.

My London uncle was more fortunate in his progeny, for he had two sons, one of whom was to become one of the world’s leading exponents of pearlcraft, while the other went to the New World, then sadly deficient in pearl experts, and there thrived for several decades to the benefit of his adopted country as much as to himself.

Not-after-all this—that the daughters of the breed were negligible when it came to carrying on the tradition. My mother was not an exception. She had four or five sisters who married husbands and taught them what had been so well learned in the paternal home, making pearl merchants of them. And so, through sons and daughters alike, the family trade passed down through the generations.

If pearls were the main theme of my family’s existence, still there were various cousins and second cousins of mine who varied it by taking to diamonds and the lesser gems, the reason presumably being that the known pearl fisheries did not yield a sufficient supply of gems to provide a livelihood for all my numerous connections. This was before the discovery of the Australian pearl beds, in the development of which, as I have written elsewhere, I played my part.

Of my own generation, in my own immediate family, all the five sons went into the family game and all the three daughters married into the trade. From my earliest days I have lived and breathed in the atmosphere of gems. And if I have sometimes strayed to other ways of making a few pounds here and there as a general merchant, yet I have to thank pearls and precious stones, and other stones not so precious, for my very existence. If am not like the cheese-mite in the Gorgonzola, all cheese, at least my interest are almost as exclusive and for the same reason. The cheese-mite and I were both born in the business.

A rough count for the purposes of this survey has revealed, to my astonishment, that no fewer than forty seven members of my family, more or less closely related, have thought the gem business good enough for them. Nor have their activities been confined to one country or even one continent. In the fullest sense of the word they have looked upon the world s their oyster. Poland, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Australia, Spain, Belgium, England, USA, Venezuela, Panama, the Philippine Islands, South Africa, China, Japan, Turkey, Brazil, Colombia, Malaya are some of the countries whither the feet of my far flung kin have stayed. Truly, like the British Empire, the sun never sets on them! They also inhabit the older centers of the gem trade where from time immemorial men have dealt in precious stones and in pearls. The Habibs and the Rosenthals of Bahrein in the Persian Gulf, and the Menasses of the Levant and Salonika and of India, are also connections of mine, and these are names which men know honorably wherever gems are the merchandise.

Success in a material sense may not have come to all these relatives of mine. But they fought their battles in a tough trade bravely enough and there is success in that. Some of them were pioneers. I think, for instance, of an uncle who went out to South Africa, lured by the early tales of great discoveries of diamonds in the Cape. I believe that with him discretion was not the better part and that he paid dearly for transgressing against the strict laws relating to I.D.B. He had left behind in Europe the wife of his bosom and did not return to her for thirty years. She could have presumed his death and remarried, but this she steadfastly refused to do. There were many who admired her faithfulness, and at last this was rewarded. Her errant spouse returned to her. Then at last was her tongue unloosed. As an eyewitness later told me, she gave him such a complete dressing down that fled back whence he had come and never saw his Griselda again, no doubt preferring his final fate as a Rhodesian lion’s dinner.

Other pioneers were a cousin of mine whose intrepidity helped to make known in the eighties of last century the pleasing if not first rate pearls of California, and two other cousins who braved fevers and discomforts galore when Panama was still an unhealthy spot. For one succumbed to Yellow Jack on the Isthmus and the other paid with lifelong ill health for such competency as he had acquired from dealing in the pearls of that region.

One of my mother’s cousins was amongst the fist in recent years to carry on a lively trade in Venezuela pearls. Later on he pioneered in North Western Australia among the pearl fishing centers south of Java Head, several years before I myself went to that unhealthy coast. I met his widow once after his death, and in a burst of confidence she told me of a spot far up the Amazon where her husband had adventured once upon a time and found some huge priceless pearls, only to have them stolen from under his pillow by of the ship owner’s crew as he journeyed down to Para. She had intended to keep the secret of where these huge pearls were to be obtained for her eldest son, but as he wisely preferred the quiet life of a diamond merchant in Madrid to that of a pearl pioneer in the wilderness of Brazil, she handed on the chance of a fortune to me. But somehow adventure has always kept me busy elsewhere!

Pioneering does not pay. I mean it does not pay the pioneer. And those of my family who have fared best have been the bread and butter men who did not listen to the Lorelei-song of distant lands, but stayed in the great gem trading centers of London, Paris and New York. Nevertheless, I have never, for my part, regretted that I have dangerously and not spent my time accumulating a mountain of gold. Nor, I suppose, do those who live and die exploring the far corners of the world really regret having thus lived and thus died.

To my mind there is nothing like the quest for gems at their source, which will throw a man into the whirlpool of adventure and—if he has eyes to see it—into the arms of romance itself. Adventure and romance usually prove to be uncommonly uncomfortable at first hand, but they are the stuff of memory, and memories studded with gems, memories literally bejeweled, are to me memories worth having indeed. More to the point as far as my readers are concerned, they are memories worth sharing.

Spinel

Gemmology Queensland writes:

The Flawless Spinel

According to Scottish gemologist, Alan Hodgkinson, red spinels that are flawless, when observed in a horizontal microscope, are few and far between. But the proposal to a flawless red spinel is sound, as this forces gemologists to investigate further, a previous generation of gemologists did have to discover Plato structures in otherwise flawless Verneuil synthetic corundums.

Among the many gemological treasures in Anderson’s Gem Testing was his discovery that the multi-line emission spectra of natural spinel contrasted with the single line emission of the various synthetic spinels. Seeing is believing and as with most processes, technique is all important for success.

It is not easy to achieve positive results, when attempting to use longwave ultraviolet light to study the fluorescent emission spectrum of gemstones, for ultraviolet damage to eyes is a real possibility. Better results may be achieved using tungsten or halogen light that has been filtered with a blue filter.

The blue exciter filter, sold by McCrone Instruments, or a saturated solution of copper sulphate, is ideal for this purpose. When this filter is crossed with a red Barrier filter, it then becomes possible to observe fluorescent chromium spectra in gemstones.

The blue exciter filter can be used alone to detect the emission spectra of red spinels, however, a strong light source must be used to ensure success.

Preferably:
- work in total darkness.
- illuminate the spinel to achieve maximum transmission.
- place the blue exciter filter against the stone, on opposite side to the light source.
- observe the emission spectrum with a good quality spectroscope such as the OPL diffraction grating spectroscope. Note that the spectroscope should be held close to the blue filter so that it can analyze all the wavelengths emitted by the fluorescing stone.

What you observe from red spinel will be either the multi-emission lines of natural red spinel that are contrasted against the general gloom of the natural spinel, or only a single 686nm emission line that identifies the various synthetic red spinels.

Hodgkinson’s advice to those who wish to learn the fluorescent emission lines in red spinel is…..try, try, try again. Success will be your reward.