subject: Are Semi Precious And Precious Stones Different? [print this page] The difference between precious and semi precious gemstones is highly debatable. While some believe the two categories of gemstones are disjoint, others support their overlapping nature. As a matter of fact, there is no real difference between both the categories. It was actually the cultural differences that led to the formation of two groups semi precious stones and precious stones. Thus, the next time you go out to buy any type of gemstone; dont pay heed to the category it falls in. Something the seller calls semi-precious might be considered precious in other parts of the world.
Wondering why would someone call a gemstone semi-precious? Well, there can be various reasons out of which prominent ones have been mentioned below.
Culture Differences
One of the biggest reasons responsible for the emergence of two groups of gemstones is culture difference. People in one culture may consider a particular gemstone better thus treating it as a precious possession. For instance, in ancient times kings and queens mostly used to wear diamonds and rubies and from there the stones received the precious tag. Also, there was a particular community in which only diamonds were used while worshipping God. For these people, diamond was the only existing precious gemstone. Similarly, different cultures have different thoughts about precious stones and there is no fixed way to determine which stone falls in which category.
Differences in Purity Level
The purity of a gemstone also decides whether it should be called semi-precious or a rare gemstone. For instance, if a given diamond is impure it would be called semi precious only. To put it in other words, the type of gemstones in both the categories fluctuate depending on the number of impurities present in them.
NOTE: Whenever you are buying diamonds check their quality thoroughly. Dont just buy them blindly thinking every diamond is precious!
Availability of Gemstones
Lastly, availability of gemstones is also an important factor that helps in deciding whether a gemstone is precious or not. Pure diamonds are hard to find and thus they are named amongst rare gemstones. Here, we would like to point out that the abundance of a gemstone is not fixed and varies from time to time. This is the reason why amethyst now is not considered as a precious stone. In ancient days, amethyst was considered rare as not many deposits were discovered at that point of time.
After going through all the above reasons, we hope you would able to figure out the apparent differences between both type of gemstones.
