Astra Gems

Up till recently, Diamonds, Emeralds, Rubies, and Sapphires, were considered to be the only "Jewels". Around 2007 - 2008 however, or thereabouts, there was much talk in the colored stones industry to "add Tanzanite to the Jewel" catagory. Besides these "Jewels", any other semi-precious and precious colored stones in general, are considered "Gem-Stones" or simply Gems. " The move to include Tanzanite in the "Jewel" family of stones is for the purely simple reason of it being "a one-source" and scarce gem besides its beauty. To be sure, all gemstones and Jewels are catagorized as "colored stones." One big point of interest is that gems like Paraiba Tourmaline, Alexandrite, and a number of other gems can often be more precious, costly, and valuable, than the so-called Jewels.

There are several types of lab-created gemstones; all of those processes highly guarded by the companies who create the gems. Of those gems there are two basic types. One is what is referred to as "synthetic" and the second type is a "simulant". Both types are "man-made stones. Synthetic however, is a gem actually "grown" from a genuine "seed-gem", which is a small piece of a real gemstone. That is accomplished through chemical and mechanical means which in a sense duplicates nature's action of creating gems. One method used to "create" gemstones is "hydro-thermal process". Synthetic gems are generally very nice and have a great deal of value - as they are "real". Simulants on the other hand, also man made, are generally produced out of materials such as common glass and the like.

See the above question of "What are 'Lab created-gemstones"?

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For description of: COLOR ENHANCEMENT: RADIATED GEMS: etc SEE "TOPAZ" BELOW.

The word Zirconia is derived from Zircon. A Zircon is a genuine gemstone often confused with a Cubic Zirconia which is a man made Simulant. A Zircon is a valuable gemstone. An excellent diamond imitation, the cubic zirconia is most often found in lesser value jewelry.

Rubellite tourmaline was given its name by the Portuguese traders.  Rubellite derives its name from Rubies. Its literal meaning is:"Like a ruby." Rubellite is Latin for Red.

There are three major sources of lapis around the globe. Afghanistan, South America, and Russia. Afghan lapis is the most valued stone. Marbled with gold-colored iron pyrite. Some pieces make high priced jewelry. South American lapis is generally laced with the mineral calcite. Its lite appearance distracts from its beauty and only a few stones can be used for jewelry. Russian lapis has virtually no inclusions and is generally a solid deep blue in its appearance. The designation of "lapis lazuli" only refers to color. Lazuli means blue.

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In short, ammolite is organic in nature, and is the shell of an ammonite which has calcified and fossilized. Pieces of that shell is made into "gem-stones" by means of polishing.

Ammolite is a rare material and mined in most difficult conditions. One source is in North Alaska another is Madagascar in Africa. In very high demand, this "gemstone" commands prices which is generally prohibitive for most people to purchase. Ammonites are (or were) sea dwelling creatures of the nautilus family said to have lived millions of years ago during the so-called Paleontolic era (of this planet's historical evolution - or so they say.)

Obtaining and owning a piece of ammolite jewelry, is indeed an heirloom treasure.

Gold comes in varying basic shades of yellow. Go Home At: www.shebangventures.com by clicking on the link above. Then click on the SERVICES page. Go to the "Gold" section for a further and more detailed answer to your question.

With everybody trying to sell you "jewelry cleaners" such as sonic cleaners at hundreds of dollars, or jewelers telling you that "you should bring in your jewelry for 'a professional' cleaning" at hundreds of dollars (which is nothing less than hot steaming 'professional' horses puckey'), the simplest, easiest way, and most importantly, THE MOST EFFECTIVE AND SAFE WAY OF CLEANING YOUR JEWELRY, is, a drop of dish soap in a small glass bowl of tepid water and a small medium-stiff bristled brush. Gently brush your jewelry with the tips of the brush. Rinse it afterwards with tepid water and lip-blow it out - let it dry.

By the way, all that your favorite jeweler will do for you, is a steam or sonic cleaning of your jewelry. Something to consider is, that cleaning your jewelry sonicly WILL loosen the stones in your ring, etc. Just think about that...

Black Hills Gold is actually a combination of various colors of gold which creates a special look usually in the shape of grape leaves. Reputedly, this combination of colors and shape of this jewelry was "created" by a french goldsmith named Henri LeBeau prior to immigating to the U.S. That influence provided the basis for the popular look of Black Hills gold jewelry of today. The tri-colors of gold represented are in rose, green and yellow gold. The naming of this type of jewelry has nothing to do with the claim of Black Hills gold's origin. LeBeau settled in the black hills region after immigrating - he designed and distributed his product from there. See sample above. LeBeau was also never a grape grower. He got the idea of a grape leaf design from having been born and raised in a grape growing region in France.

With proverbial tongue-in-cheek it is said that "for a piece of jewelry to be called Black Hills Gold, it MUST have been made in the Black Hills". I suspect that the "legend" was conjured up by the jewelers of the Black Hills to keep the business local, and that the claim of "Good Luck to anyone wearing Black Hills gold", is for the same reason. 

All items sold out of this website are guaranteed by us to be in good to excellent condition (except for the Murphy's Law phenomenon which can rear its' ugly Hydra heads at any time). For that reason, we also guarantee that all our products will be shipped out to you exactly as advertised - or in even better shape. Our good name is our warrantee! See Resource Page on this website. www.shebangventures.com/resources Thanks.

Your local coinshop, like any other business anywhere, is motivated to be in business by the one ingredient which drives an economy. It has been said: "Greed is the motivating lubricant, which drives the economy". After hundreds of coinshops, coinshows, coinclubs, and the like, I've come to understand the blatant and unbridled greed which drives coin-dealers, whose sole business is in buying and selling money, and to make an enormous profit ... except us! Our motivation is based on a much different philosophy. See COINS or CURRENCY.

So, if you want a "good" deal on coins, currency, and the like, buy from private parties. If you don't know of any, buy from us where you will find a full disclosure and information practice for and on the items you want to have based on fair trade, and on a "please don't be in a hurry to buy or sell..." philosophy. You will never hear us say: "Get it while you can!"

Everybody needs money! But our motivation is based on the appreciation of the arts...

THAT EYE-OPENING AND REVEALING information will be posted here shortly... You will be interested in how a 3000 percent "profit" is calculated into the items of this industry ...  and what "supply and demand" really is: Compared to our "barely-over-cost" selling practice.

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Until the mid 1900s, Topaz was considered rare and valuable. Since then, the value of Topaz as a rare gemstone crashed. There are various reasons for this such as abundance.

Topaz is a prism shaped crystal. These crystals come in a variety of colors such as clear, blue, yellow, green, violet or reddish brown. Golden yellow topaz is the most valuable. Today through a process of vapor deposition (color enhanced, irradiation, through dyes, heating, and so forth), clear topaz (and other gem-stones) can be made into just about any color of the rainbow, which "coloring" with some care, will last a lifetime or longer. Of these, London Blue topaz is the most desired.

Sources of Topaz are Sri Lanka, Japan, Russia and Mexico. Supurb Topaz has also been found in California. Topaz comes from the Greek word topazos which means stone without a [lost its] name. Clear Topaz is referred to as "White Topaz" of which the larger carat weight stones used for color enhancements are rare                                     Golden Topaz: 

The designation of Kt applies to noble (precious) metals as to content generally. Ct or Ctw is a weight designation for precious or semi-precious gemstones - generally. What is very interesting is where those designations originated and their original meanings. i.e. weight of a carob seed... i.e. 100 carob seeds = 1 ctw... etc. Ct stands for Carato, Qirat, Keration = Carob seeds in some middle east languages - as measurements. More to come...

Generally they refer to the alloy content or the percent of precious metal versus various base metals contained in the jewelry. For instance .925 in silver means that .075 percent of that silver jewelry is base metal - also known as Sterling Silver. Kt comes from a Byzantine Gold coin aka Solidus. It was made out of pure (24Kt) gold. Afterwards used as a standard for the measuring of the weight of gold. More on base metals later on.

The numbers on jewelry generally refer to a European standard of measuring gold content which is different than American standards. What is of great interest is, that in Europe, any gold less than 18 Kt (75 percent gold and 25 percent base metal) cannot legally be referred to as "Gold". i.e. 1000=100%-24Kt   750=75%-18Kt   585=58.3%-14Kt   417=41.7%-10Kt.

Peridot comes from several parts from all around the world. Pakistan, Arizona, USA, China, Burma, and I also believe from North Korea. I'll check on that and will post later. To look for the quality of Peridot, basic rule is, the stone should be more green than yellow. Chinese Peridot has more yellow than green vs Arizona which is more green than yellow. Recently it was discovered that the Planet Mars has vast deposits of Peridot.