Tag Archives: gems at large

Find Everything You Want to Know about Gems and Jewelry from John and Laura Ramsey

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If you’ve been searching for a place to find facts about gems and jewelry, look no further than the expertise of John and Laura Ramsey. Their many years of experience in the gem and jewelry business enable them to provide honest, reliable, easy-to-understand and interesting facts about gemstones and jewelry.

Their sole mission? Education. If you visit their main Ramseygems.com website, you’ll notice it is not a sales website—because their goal is not to conduct transactions.  Their passion is to educate as many individuals and gem collectors as possible about identifying quality gems and jewelry.

Tantalizing Topaz by Laura Ramsey

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Topaz 2To be born in November and to know that your birthstone is the long loved Topaz creates a certain pleasure. This special gem with its varying colors is my birthstone, so I can speak from knowledge.

As young travelers to Brazil, John and I were some of the first gem dealers to bring back Imperial Topaz in larger wholesale quantities. I remember vividly our first encounter with a large parcel of gem Imperial Topaz rough and thinking “what a marvelous, passionate color it is.”  Of course when buying gems, showing enthusiasm is not permitted (i.e., poker face!) and I remember how difficult it was to curb my enthusiasm. This is the emotion that came from seeing this rich red orange color in gloriously large natural crystals.

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Birthstone Spotlight: October Tourmaline by Laura Ramsey

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Tourmaline colors

October brings us the dazzling colors of fall… burning oranges, vivid reds, blue greens and golden yellows—all colors that amaze and delight us. So it is with the birthstones for October, Tourmaline and Opal. Lucky you, October baby… you have your choice of both! This blog post will focus on Tourmaline.

With its many arrays of color, upwards of over 100 easily discernible colors, Tourmaline has fast become quite a favorite gem. It mirrors falls colors and then some with its’ Orange Tourmaline from Africa, Blue Green Tourmaline from Brazil and Rubellite Red Tourmaline from Nigeria and Brazil. Tourmaline even blends colors within a crystal creating what we call watermelon tourmaline because of its red and green combination. Party color tourmalines are just that…a happy party of subtle variations of color! Selecting just one color that is your favorite will be quite the challenge.

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Scintillating Sapphire by Laura Ramsey

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sapphire jewelry

In addition to the Greek word mentioned in our last year’s blog post about sapphires, the Latin word “Saphirus” also means blue. With so many words in English having either a Greek or a Latin origin, it’s no wonder that with both Green and Latin having a sound-alike name for sapphire, that we wound up with “sapphire” in the English language.

Blue corundum called sapphire has been collected by many over the centuries. Let’s take a look at some famous ‘Saphirus’ together…

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Peridot – Its Ancient Beginnings

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PeridotOften known in Hawaii as the tears of the Goddess Pele, Peridot has a noble and ancient beginning. The name Peridot is derived from the old French word “peritot”, meaning gold. So let us see how far back in time we have to travel in order to trace the beginning of this golden green gem…

It is believed that peridot, originally called “Chysolite” before the advent of scientific gemology, was mined over 3500 years ago in Egypt. The mysterious St. John’s Island (a.k.a. Zeberget) produced what the Egyptians called ‘the gem of the sun’. The island was often shrouded in fog and its location was often a mystery.

Zeberget EgyptZeberget, photo courtesy of lms_namaste on flickr.com

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Birthstone Spotlight: June Alexandrite

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natural_faceted_alexandriteThose born in June are lucky to have their choice of three birthstones: Alexandrite, Pearl and Moonstone. This year, we’d like to focus on Alexandrite… the most rare of all the birthstones.

For years, gemology students have been taught that Alexandrite was the rarest of all gemstones (whether or not this is the current teaching, it was taught for many years). Perhaps today, the better statement is that Alexandrite is the rarest of the birthstones. In any case Alexandrite is a very rare gem, for many of the same issues that Emerald has. Let us explain…

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John and Laura Ramsey Have the Perfect Gems and Jewelry for Collectors

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John and Laura Ramsey are popular and well known names in the field of gems and jewelry. For a long time they appeared on television home shopping shows and provided the viewers of those shows a chance to get the highest quality gems and exquisite gemstone and diamond jewelry. Each and everything that they have ever offered to their viewers has been well received.

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John And Laura Ramsey Are Known As One Of The Best In The Industry Of Gemstone Jewelry

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John And Laura Ramsey have a huge knowledge of gemstone jewelry and they both know how to provide quality and fair prices for gems and this is the reason why they have gained such a great recognition in the field. The fact that they offer high quality gemstone jewelry at reasonable prices has enabled them to receive customers and build a long-term relationship with them.

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Beau Sancy Diamond Sells for a Record Ten Million

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With no less than 5 bidders competing for the gem the tense battle lasted no longer than 8 minutes before the gavel sounded. David Bennett, Chairman of the Jewelry Department at Sotheby’s in Europe (who was privileged to handle the sale) said, “ The Beau Sancy is one of the most fascinating and romantic gems ever to appear at auction…”

Beau SancyOften known as the ‘little’ Sancy, the Beau Sancy diamond was the smaller of the two diamonds bearing the name. This smaller version weighs in at a “mere” 34.98 carats. It is a modified pear double rose cut diamond which has been witness to 400 years of European history. It has been passed down to Royal families of England, France, Prussia and the House of Orange. Acquired by Nicolas de Harlai, Lord of Sancy, in the late 1500’s , the Sancy is said to be from the mines of south central India near Golconda. This famous mine has produced the Hope Diamond, the Koh-I-Noor and the Regent.

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John And Laura Ramsey Have Visited Several Gem Mining Districts Of The World

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John and Laura Ramsey have a huge knowledge of gemstone jewelry. They both believe in high quality and fair dealing of gems and that is why they have earned a great reputation in the field. The fact that they offer high quality gemstone jewelry at fair prices has made then able to gain the customers trust and make a long-term relationship with them. Both of them have spent nearly 40 years of their life in the wholesale trade of gem and jewelry. During that time, they visited manyl gem mining districts of the world including Brazil, Thailand, East Africa, and Sri Lanka. All these travels have helped them get exposure and their knowledge.

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