As stated on the Gemmological Association of Australia (GAA) website, “a gemstone is a mineral or other natural material that is beautiful enough, durable enough, and rare enough, to be used for personal adornment or for the embellishment of personal possessions”.

Like diamonds, coloured gemstones have many specifications to take into consideration. Most people are not aware that a gemstones quality and pricing is also determined by a grading system. A gemstone is graded by the rarity of its features; colour, cut, clarity, and carat weight.

Naturally, the size or carat weight plays an important role when pricing the coloured gemstone, however the quality, especially the colour, is a major contributing factor. The hue, tone, and saturation of a gemstone’s colour will help determine how the gemstone will be graded; the stronger the colour, the more expensive a gemstone will be.

The cut is graded by the precision of the facets’ angles, in turn allowing the light to correctly reflect off the facets giving the gemstone brilliance or shine. A gemstone that has been poorly cut may have a ‘window’, which allows light to pass through the centre, making anything resting behind the gemstone visible. A well-cut gemstone will highlight or enhance a gemstone’s features.

Clarity refers to the tiny naturally occurring inclusions within a gemstone, which interferes with the free passage of light. A gemstone’s clarity is graded based on the visual and structural impact. This will, however, differ between gemstones. For example, it is more common to have an Emerald with many inclusions, yet an Aquamarine will most likely be graded as ‘eye- clean’. An ‘eye-clean’ gemstone is graded as such, when the inclusions cannot be seen with the naked eye.