Most Popular Gemstones

Diamonds are a girls best friend, right?  No so fast.  The diamond isn’t even in the top 10 most popular gemstones.  That’s surprising right?  Well consider how many gemstones there are in the world.  The most recent survey included over 130 different stones.  Diamonds, for all their beauty, are just plain stones that sparkle.  Most have little or no color.  Most people, it seems, like bright and different colors.  Below is a list of the top 5 most popular gemstones.

1.  Tourmaline

Tourmaline tops the list of most popular gemstones.  It can be found in a wide variety of colors including green, blue, yellow, pink, watermelon, bi-color, red, purple, and even black.  It actually can be found in the greatest variety of colors, more so than any other gemstone.  I think that’s why it is the most popular gemstone because you can get it in so many colors.  There is also a tourmaline that is color-changing depending on what light it is in.  Tourmaline is a reasonably hard stone with a score of 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale.

2.  Sapphire

Sapphire comes in #2 on the list.  It also comes in a variety of colors including blue, orange, yellow, pink, white, green, purple, and bi-color.  It is seen often on people of the rich and famous.  Blue sapphires are the most common and the most popular color.  They are a very strong stone with a score of 9 on the Mohs scale.

3.  Topaz

Topaz is mostly a blue stone.  But it does come in a lot of different shades of blue.  Blue topaz is actually very rare in nature.  Most of the blue topaz you see in jewelry stores is the result of treating and enhancing the stone.  Topaz is a very hard stone with a rating of 8 on the Mohs scale.

4.  Amethyst

Amethyst is strictly a purple stone.  It comes in light purple all the way to dark purple, but it is always purple.  Amethyst stones tend to be very clear.  It ranks with a 7 on the Mohs scale making it a great stone for jewelry.

5.  Spinel

Rounding out the top 5 is Spinel.  It’s a stone not many people have heard of but it is found in a lot of jewelry.  It compares well with sapphire because of its brilliance and luster.  Most people used to think Spinel was a ruby.  In fact, “The Black Prince’s Ruby” is actually not a ruby, it is a Spinel.  Spinel is cool because it is never treated or enhanced.