Gemstones and Gemstone Imitations

Since precious stones have been regarded for millennia as a very valuable, since they occur in nature is now very rare times, came early to the idea of imitating, gems or falsify.

Are known here of the so-called Strasbourg jewelry, named after its inventor Joseph Strasser. These stones were used from the outset as imitations of diamonds, and were therefore largely colorless. For the first time Joseph Strasser presented its creation in 1745 during a Court ball. His wife wore a necklace of fake diamonds.

To date, the rhinestones are produced. Except for the fact that they bear no large temperature differences, they are relatively unproblematic in the processing. Except for barrel work, they can splinter on the edges very quickly. Besides the rhinestones and zirconia are incorporated as imitation diamonds in jewelry pieces. The Zirkoniasteinen be synthetically manufactured from zirconium dioxide.

Not to be confused, these art pieces with real zircons. This will see the diamond is also very similar and will be processed as a substitute for diamonds in jewelry, but they are naturally occurring stones and not synthetically produced. The zirconia was first in 1937 on the market. Even experts can not distinguish at first sight between a real diamonds and such a stone.

Uniqueness here brings only a measurement of thermal conductivity of both stones. The refractive index of diamond and Cubic Zirconia are different and can be used as distinguishing features. Terms of price difference between the stones, however, dramatic: a diamond of the same size costs about 1000 times one zirconias. Zirconia can be produced in all sizes and shapes. It is even possible to produce with zirconia inclusions.