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What is a precious stone? In the early 1800s a German, Fredrich Mohs, developed the Mohs Hardness Scale. This table refers to how easily a stone scratches (not how easily a stone breaks.) From the Hardness Scale the terms precious and semiprecious were coined in about 1850. The only qualifier for a precious stone was simply that it was one of the four hardest stones on the scale: diamond, sapphire, emerald and ruby. All other stones, including those not mentioned on the Mohs Hardness Scale, were referred to as semiprecious. Hence the term semiprecious is a misnomer in the gem world. All stones are best referred to as gemstones, they are all precious.
We
invite you to explore the captivating and colorful history of gemstones
and precious metals.
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