Color Stone Jewelry: Determining the Value
What makes a colored stone valuable is its eye-catching physical characteristics that includes color, clarity to a lesser extent, cut, unusual optical phenomena within the stone(e.g. color zoning), and asteria (star effects). The Ancient Greeks, for example, greatly valued asteria in gemstones-which were believed to be as powerful love charms, and even Hellen of Troy was known to have worn a star-corundum. A factor in determining the value of a gemstone and to a certain extent, color stone jewelry, is called water. Water is an archaic term that refers to the combination of color and transparency in gemstones; used hierarchically: first water (gem of the finest water), second water, third water, byewater. Historically gemstones were classified into precious stones and semi-precious stones. Because such a definition can change over time and vary with culture, it has always been a difficult matter to determine what constitutes precious stones.