Precious stones

How do I know if a stone is precious, semi precious or priceless?

Is it the kind? Or the cut?

My knowledge of geology is pretty poor, but certain minerals are listed as being "Precious" or "Semiprecious", but this doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the actual value of a given stone which is determined instead by various traits: clarity, lustre, cut and more...

This is only a traditional classification.

Diamond, ruby, sapphire and emerald are precious, other gemstones (turquoise, jasper, lapis lazuli, etc.) are semi-precious

A few others may also at the time be considered precious: Pearl, Opal, Amethyst.
Less likely but still possible, Garnet and Amber.

However, depending on invidual gems, its quite possible that any gem with enough clarity, luster and simply "shininess" may be considered precious.

And then thereĀ“s this:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precious_S ... _the_Bible
Which is not exactly a good source but some in the game era may very well consider some or all of them as precious.

While I can't recall where I learnt it, I had "always known" this to be the case, too.

Search it on the net and you will get the answer. :slight_smile:
Priceless if you have not got enough money to buy that piece. :smiley:

Priceless stones are rare, exceptional examples of precious stones (or just absurd examples of semi-precious). Perfect or rare color or size, etc.

That is what I am doing by using this forum. DO feel flattered that I believe this forum the best place on the net to answer my question.

I know that diamons aren't cut in period, and I'd wonder at other stones, outside Arabia and India...but might well be wrong.

I want to say (from dim memories from research on that some many ages ago) that some were, if at a very basic level (and only the "softer" gems). But polishing them was far more common. The word "cabochon" (sp?) jumps to mind.