You Just Got Fugazi'd...What'a Ya Gonna Do About It Eh?

I'm going to start off by saying there are a lot of fake pieces of jewelry out there that have very realistic names. If you come across something that just seems too good to be true, double check then triple check, because most of the time it is too good to be true and advertisers are SNEAKY!

Example 1: I had a customer come in one time asking me to verify a price on a "Herkimer Diamond" someone gave him as a trade for work he had done. Like many, he didn't know what he had, he just heard the word "diamond" and assumed this would be sufficient for the $2,000.00 job he had just done. Unfortunately for him, he got scammed.

There are a lot of imitations out there for diamonds...and the wording is quite tricky! Like the above mentioned, it's not diamond at all, it's quartz. So let's go over a few misnomers for diamonds and the proper terminology for diamond simulant and diamond imitation that are out there so you don't fall victim.

Example 2: I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but there are a lot and I mean A LOT of sites out there selling jewelry online claiming that they are selling LAB GROWN DIAMONDS (and they are, but just not everything on their site is lab grown like it appears to be)....read the fine print!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE READ THE FINE PRINT!!!! Another story...had a customer bring in a "lab grown diamond ring" and it was anything BUT a diamond...he overpaid by a lot for this ring, and couldn't return it. So please, read the fine print and if you're confused, shoot me an email I'm more than willing to take a look at something.

There's a lot of misconception when using particular words in the jewelry industry. For example we have "diamond simulant" and "diamond imitation." In the gemology world the words "diamond simulant" represent something like a lab grown diamond that has the same chemical composition and structure as a natural diamond, but has been grown in a laboratory. The words "diamond imitation" in the gemology world refer to anything, natural or synthetic that is IMITATING a diamond or in other words being used in place of a diamond to make it look like a diamond. For example a cubic zirconia is a diamond imitation, it LOOKS like a diamond, but has no properties related to a diamond.

Here's where my issue comes in, advertisers do not properly use these terms or even worse sometimes they use them interchangeably and that's where things get messy and people buy something that is not even close to being a diamond.

Don't Be Fooled by These Popular Misnomars

Herkimer Diamond-white quartz

Killiecrankie Diamond-white topaz

Alaska Diamond-rock crystal (quartz)

Black Alaskan Diamond-Hematite

Alencon Diamond-smokey quartz

Alpine Diamond-pyrite

Bristol Diamond-quartz

Buxton Diamond-quartz

Marmarosh Diamond-quartz

Matura Diamond-colorless zircon (this is not cubic zirconia)

I'm sure there are more out there, but these are some of the most common, so please do your research and if the price is too good to be true, it just may be!