The Scoop
Fake Gem Certificates
I want to begin this story early in the 1990's when my best friend who is an American was managing a gem company based in Bangkok, Thailand. He and his wife ran the company for 4 years. Their story is fascinating from a number of perspectives, but for the purposes of this article I reference an observation they made that I think is profound, and I quote. " During our 4 years in Bangkok managing a gem company we almost never saw a "Real Burmese Ruby" End Quote. Now isn't that interesting, and almost unbelievable? How could they have been in the gem capital of the world and not come in contact with a Burmese rubies, despite having repeated requests for them from American gem buyers? Not understanding this myself I grilled my friend further and he went on to explain as follows, and again I quote. "During our 4 years with our Gem Company I only saw 2 Burmese Rubies privately owned, and they were $10,000.00 per carat." "There were small Cambodian and a few Thai rubies, but those mines have now been totally exhausted." End quote! So where are all these rubies on the internet with laboratory certificates claiming to be Burmese coming from?
My friends revelations immediately began to raise some serious questions for me personally. I was, and I still am actively involved in the gem business. I make a full time living buying and selling good quality gems, jewelry, and minerals. Therefore it was in my best interest to personally solve some serious questions that my friends comments raised. For example, how could it be that there were few Burmese rubies to be seen in the 1990's, but in 2010 on the internet how a person see thousands of rubies with lab certifications indicating that they are Burmese! I had to discover the answer for myself, and nolt rely on the opinions of anyone else, so I decided to go to Chantaburi, Thailand to see for myself. It was a 6 hour bus ride from Bangkok, but I arrived, and I sat for a while at the gem market looking at stones, and was asked by a Thai in broken English if I needed a certificate for any purhases. I immediately asked "where?" He pointed to a little office right there at the market, and I learned that for a small fee of $15.00 each that I could have my gems certified to be anything I wanted them to be. Just say it, and they would make one up. Burmese? Fine! Thai? Fine. Maybe I wanted the red stone to be Spinel. Again, fine! I was in shock, but it was worth the trip to see the the magnitude of the deception and how easy it would have been to buy into the fraud.
Is there a perfect answer to this problem? The answer is no, but there are positive steps that can be taken in the right direction. and it doesn't begin with a phony Certificate from the Chantaburi Gem Market. Those certificates are not worth the paper they are printed on. The other option is a certification for a reputable Laboratory. The problem there is cost. If the certification costs more than the gem then it becomes an "is it worth it" issue? How much can the average dealer afford to spend on certificates of authenticity from reputable Labs? We can do expensive Certs on expensive gems, but in the meantime how do we deal with typical gems that are $25.00 each? We have three practices that we have put in place that we believe go a very long way to creating a honest gem environment.
1. Disclosure. Simply tell the truth about what is being sold. ( Truth in selling ultimately pays big dividends. We strongly believe that statement. )
2. Offer signed certification when we know our Gem is natural. ( We will sign a legally binding document on Oregon Sunstones that we KNOW are 100% Natural. )
3. Offer a full 100% money back guarantee on all of our gems. ( Why not stand behind our products? Buyer confidence is essential to seller success.)
Gemology is a difficult and extremely complicated science. and there isn't a decent gemologist alive won't admit that there are still things to be learned about the complexities of gems especially when new discoveries are made, and when unscrupulous people continue to develop methods of gem enhancement, alteration, and other techniques of gem manipulation. On our Website we are committed to ethics and integrity, but can we make a mistake, or can we be mis-led? The answer is "Of Course". It would be wrong to claim otherwise, but we continue to study, learn, and strive for ethical standards, and if we do make a mistake, then our guarantee will fully cover our error. That is a pledge that a buyer will not receive when purchasing a gem from a source with a fraudulent certificate, and one whom you couldn't track down if your life depended on it. We strive every day to build trust between ourselves and our buyers.
Jim Stewart
Owner: Gemstones of Montana
DBA: www.gemsnjewelry.com
Email: sales@gemsnjewelry.com