Advise to all gemstone sellers on ebay

[shamimhassan]

Most sellers do not mention the origin of the stone they are selling which is equally important as the size and clarity. I hope that sellers will mention the origin of the stone they are selling. At present only the expensive stones like Ruby, Emerald and Sapphire have their origin mentioned.
Regards and best wishes for all.

Dr. Shamim A. Hassan
Khobar Saudi Arabia

[emailswarup]

Dear Dr. Hassan,

Its true that if the origin is mentioned for a gem then the experienced buyers can guess the quality of the stone better. However, I think few sellers have documentary proof to establish the country of origin of the gems. Hence, some of them (incl. me) tend to avoid making such non-documented remark in the listing. I have many gems in my collection for which I can guarantee the origin (from the quality of the gem) but do not have any documentary proof for those.

Sometimes the stones change the chemical composition if the origin is mentioned. Say by mentioning just Cat's Eye it means from Chrysoberyl group but if we mention Sulemani Cat's eye then its from the Quartz family. Similarly Orissa Panna (it looks like excellent quality Emerald to untrained eyes) is normally Green Fluorite and not Beryl. In such cases the seller must describe the gems well and must mention about the group to avoid any controversy.

Lastly, I wish to say that apart from the expensive stones, most of the other stones in auction have good sources in our own Indian sub-continent.

. Best Regards 🙂
Swarup Dutta
Kolkata

[amitava123gems]

Hi Swarup,
You are my valued buyer.I beg to say something different.If some body writes indian ruby,you can be sure that it is not ruby.There is a strong rumour in the rough market that sapphire has been found in india.But I am yet to see a specimen.Its always better to mention the chemistry.Color is nothing but impurity in a mineral.So if the beryl is deep and pure green, it is an emerald.If it is light and glassy brownish green,it is green beryl.If blue,it is aquamarine.There are different names assigned to yellow,violet and pinkish beryls.Of course light colored, colorless or brown beryl is just beryl.The real confusion in search results takes place for rubies.If you search for ruby the chance is that corrumdum ruby and star ruby will pop up in large numbers instead of a real ruby.And the falacy is that a pink sapphire corrundum also may not be a ruby in the strict sense.It is that hairline difference between a blue topaz and an aquamarine.Isnt it much better to mention the chemistry first, and then anything else?In the .in they have separate categories for garnet and gomedh.The hessonites spassarites rhodolites can at best be placed in sub categories.Isnt it a forum for international buyers?Why confuse non indians who are not familiar with local names?I am sorry if I have hurt anybody,s feelings.But somebody has to tell the truth.Thanx.Truly...Amitava

[emailswarup]

Dear Raha-da,

Nothing to disagree with you. Its so nice to know a person like you - a Gold medalist established Architect with so much of knowledge & interest in gems & astrology.

I think ebay can consider to add Indian names like Gomedh in bracket beside Hessonite or vice versa to make it easy for the international visitors.

Lastly, I wish to mention that by Indian sub-contienent I never meant just the political boundaries of India. Also you must agree that the best Ruby in the World is the extremely rare Kashmir (forget about LOC !!) variety. Then comes the Mogok variety of Burma. When I was working in one AL project I got strong evidence for a new source of Indian Ruby (Pink sapphire) but had little time-out from my stringent schedule to verify it properly. Wish to have a good "adda" on those the next time we meet.

:D Best Regards 🙂
Swarup Dutta
Kolkata

[amitava123gems]

Hi Swarup,I still believe you missed that chance to become the first man .Somebody will do it someday...Amitava

[emailswarup]

Hi Raha-da,
How can I discover such a source :^O . I am not so versatile !!
The locals, Mafias and some officials (with unofficial benefits ;-)) were well exploiting those gem sources at that time.
I was just planning to meet some of those strong & lucky guys thru my local colleagues there, but could not match my the schedule. C U
Swarup