Does anyone here collect gems?

[JayAg47]

I just made my foray into gems, and it's a ruby, also my birthstone (I don't believe in that stuff but I just find the colour pretty). 

I didn't want anything expensive, but also it needed to be at least big enough so I went with a Lab grown one. Octagon cut, 6.3 carats, 1.26 g, 12mm x 10mm. Love the striations that fluoresce under UV light.

 

Edited March 3, 2023 by JayAg47

[DLTcoins]

During the Great Recession, I worked with a gold buyer. We took in jewelry which had to have the stones removed before sending to the refiner. Wholesalers aggressively competed for the diamonds but we never found a buyer for colored stones. I purchased a few basic gemology tools and books, and began assembling a representative set of gemstones. Few have any real value but I found the science-ish aspect quite enjoyable. I'm afraid I haven't done much at all with the collection in recent years.

[kirispupis]

My father used to facet all the time and he still has hundreds of gems from pretty much everything except for diamond.

My wife's most precious earrings are CZ's. Each of our sons cut one ear.

Some years ago I bought and read a book about faceting and was interested in cutting stones, but then my wife reminded me that I have no time. 🙂 

She does have a (I think) 83 carat amethyst my father cut for her. She made a ring out of it that certainly catches everyone's attention. Then there's a massive topaz that's passed in our family. I think it's 157 carats and requires several strands of pearls to support.

I have several minerals I used to collect as a kid, all at his house. Nothing super rare, but we used to go to gem shows all the time and if I saw something that was pretty and cheap, my parents bought it for me. That was also my first foray into coins. One seller always had bins for 25 cents a coin. My parents would give me two to five dollars (depending on how long they wanted me gone) and I'd literally hang out there for hours trying to decide which ones I wanted. 

He doesn't cut many gems these days, but he still makes a lot of chimes and lamps that you can see here.

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

I had two or three diamond tie pins made, some 25 years ago, and got a gemstone here and there around the same period.  I haven't done anything since.  The one was a tie pin was a large one, I think one carat, in horrible grade, and the other was a nicer, 10 pointer.  Gold was much cheaper then, and probably so with gems.