Music Friday: Beyoncé and P. Diddy Sing About Cruising the World for Pearls in ‘Summertime’

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you feel-good songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, Beyoncé and P. Diddy sing about falling in love and cruising the world for pearls in “Summertime.” In this 2003 collaboration, Beyoncé celebrates that special moment when a woman knows she’s finally found her true love — someone …

Chinese Researchers Develop Super-Hard Glass That Can Actually Scratch a Diamond

As the hardest material known to man, diamond is often used in tools to cut glass. But, research scientists at China's Yanshan University have developed a new type of glass that can actually scratch a diamond. This new high-tech glass — tentatively named AM-III — rated 113 gigapascals (GPa) in the Vickers hardness test, compared to natural diamonds, which typically …

Two Out of Three Consumers Wear Jewelry to Express Their Personality and Mood: Survey

A new study confirms what most of us already know — that jewelry plays an important role in our daily lives. Two out of three respondents said that they wear specific jewelry pieces to express their personality and mood. And exactly 64% of respondents believe that — to some extent — the symbols used in jewelry have the power to …

Did You Know That the Vibrant Red Spinel Is an Official Birthstone for August?

Back in 2016, the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) and Jewelers of America (JA) announced that spinel would be joining peridot and sardonyx as an official birthstone for the month of August. It was only the third update to the modern birthstone list, which was created in 1912 by the American National Retail Jewelers Association, now known as JA. “At …

Back-to-Back: Famous Diamond Mines Yield Two Stones With Combined Weight of 736 Carats

On back-to-back days last week, Lucara Diamonds and Petra Diamonds unveiled gem-quality white diamonds weighing a combined 736.42 carats. On July 29, Lucara announced the recovery of a 393.5-carat Type IIa gem-quality white diamond from its Karowe Diamond Mine in Botswana. Just one day earlier, Petra unveiled a 342.92-carat Type IIa exceptional white diamond discovered at its Cullinan mine in …

Ancient Egyptians Weren’t Far Off When They Celebrated Peridot as the ‘Gem of the Sun’

The Ancient Egyptians mined peridot on the Red Sea island of Zabargad and celebrated the vibrant green stone as the “gem of the sun.” Thousands of years later, modern scientists have proven that August’s official birthstone is truly extraterrestrial, as it has been found embedded within meteorites and scattered across the surface of Mars. While nearly all of the peridot …

Tokyo Olympic Gold Medal Has a Melt Value of $832, But This One From 1936 Fetched $1.46MM

If the gold medals awarded at this summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo were made of pure gold, each would carry a precious metal value of $35,556. Unfortunately for the 339 athletes who will earn the ultimate symbol of athletic achievement at these Games, the gold medals are actually made of 500 grams of silver overlaid with 6 grams of gold. …