Differences between Precious and Semi-precious Stones

4 min read
16 November 2022

Given that certain stones are regarded as valuable, some as semi-precious, and yet others as fine or ornamental, a real stone's classification is complicated. There are variations. Which gemstones are deemed precious, and which are deemed semi-precious?

Characteristics of Two Stones

Precious Stones

Precious stones are the most expensive commodity on earth. They are mined from the earth and can be found in many places around the world. Only four types of "precious stones"—diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires—predominate when it comes to jewelry.

Clarity and toughness are two qualities that contribute to the Big Four's value. All these stones may be completely impurity-free and incredibly clean. Hardness is another important attribute. The Mohs scale's final three levels are occupied by all three minerals. The range of emerald hardness is 7.5 to 8. Two kinds of corundum, which rates 9 on the scale of hardness, are sapphires and rubies. Diamond is unquestionably successful. Diamonds have a hardness of 10, making them the earth's hardest naturally occurring substance. A diamond alone can scratch another diamond.

People have known for generations that the most valuable materials are diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, and rubies since they are the rarest. So separating jewels in this manner has become second nature.

Differences between Precious and Semi-precious Stones

Semi-precious Stones

Other than those four, all other gemstones are regarded as semi-precious. Although the list is endless, some of the more popular ones are alexandrite, agate, amethyst, aquamarine, garnet, lapis lazuli, moonstone, opal, pearl, peridot, rose quartz, spinel, tanzanite, tourmaline, turquoise, and zircon.

Semi-precious stones are often called “natural gems” and are the result of natural processes. They can be found in nature and are not man-made. Precious stones, on the other hand, are mined from the earth and require a lot of human intervention to bring them to their final form. Semi-precious stones have been used as jewelry for centuries. They were also used for carving objects like chess pieces or dice in ancient times.

Differences between Precious and Semi-precious Stones

 

Are Precious Stones More Valuable than Semi Ones?

In fact, there is no actual scientific basis for this distinction between precious and semi-precious metals.

  • For instance, aquamarines and emeralds are both beryl varieties. While aquamarine is semi-precious, emerald is valuable. The four precious gemstones were divided into different categories because of their different prices and scarcities from the other jewels.
  • Some semi-precious stones can now fetch substantially higher prices than precious stones. As an illustration, numerous natural pearls fetch high prices and are frequently more valuable than cheap precious stones like sapphire, diamond, ruby, or emerald. Another illustration is spinel. Many semi-precious stones may also be more uncommon than some precious stones. Tsavorite garnets, demantoid garnets, and many other semi-precious gemstones are created of considerably lower quality than valuable gemstones and are more difficult to find and mine.

Instead of using the terms precious stone or semi-precious stone, gemologists and jewelry experts advise using the term gemstone. It is impossible to quantitatively determine whether a gemstone is semi-precious or "quarter precious" because they are all incredibly lovely.

Other Dimensions

Diamonds, colorful stones, and organic gems are the categories into which some specialists divide gems. There are a few outliers, as usual. 29 gemstones are recommended by the Gemological Institute of America in their gemstone encyclopedia. In their encyclopedia, the International Gem Society includes 304 gemstones.

There aren't any terms there for precious and semi-precious metals. Two categories of natural gemstones are distinguished:

  •  Inorganic Gem Materials 

Minerals – e.g. aquamarine, diamond, emerald, tourmaline, zircon, benitoite

Rocks – e.g. lapis lazuli, opal with matrix, and turquoise with azurite and malachite

Natural glass – e.g. obsidian and moldavite

  •  Organic/Biogenic materials 

Plant origin – e.g. amber

Animal origin – e.g. ivory, coral, pearl 

It's up to You

Therefore, an attempt to classify gemstones will be strongly dependent on a subjective understanding of beauty. We wouldn't advise getting overly preoccupied with a gemstone's precious versus semi-precious status when making a purchase. In the sense that they provide you with significance and value in a piece of jewelry, all gemstones are valuable.

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Lin Yyun 2
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