How to check the authenticity of a diamond?

Diamond is one of the most expensive and mysterious minerals, which has found wide application in various industrial fields. In the art of jewelry, exclusively cut crystals are used, because only in this form can you see its unique optical properties and enjoy the incredible play of colors. In pursuit of profit, synthetic material or even ordinary glass is often sold under the guise of this rare stone.

In order not to fall for the "bait" of scammers, you need to know how a fake diamond differs from a real one, and what manipulations will help to identify a fake.

In nature, diamond is quite rare, which determines its high cost. Real stone is formed under the influence of high temperatures and pressures. It is incredibly hard and has good thermal conductivity. An untreated crystal cannot be called attractive - it is dull, the surface is rough, with a gray coating and cracks. Only after cutting by master jewelers, the mineral will become transparent and sparkle in the sun.

Most often, colorless diamonds are found, which appear white or light gray before processing. But there are also stones of pale pink, yellow, brown and green. The rarest loot is the Black Gem.

Cut diamond jewelry is very expensive, but its beauty and brilliance are worth every cent, so it comes as no surprise that they are in great demand.Unfortunately, this is used by scammers who have learned to counterfeit diamonds. For this, someone artificially grows crystals, someone passes off cheaper minerals as a jewel, and someone even gets used to processing glass in a special way.

Only a professional can distinguish natural from high quality artificial stone. Nevertheless, there are several ways to recognize a fake, and the manipulations are so simple that they can be easily done at home.

It is not difficult to determine the authenticity of a diamond at home. To do this, you need to perform the following manipulations.

1. Examine the stone in daylight - it should look beautiful from all angles. Fakes are usually most attractive only from above, since this part is always in sight.
2. A real diamond always stays cold, even if you hold it in your hand for a long time. The artificial specimen quickly absorbs heat and retains it.
3. Breathe on the mineral - if it fogs up, then this is a fake. The original always remains transparent.
4. If you put a pebble in water, it will certainly sink, while a fake will float on the surface for some time. But if the alleged diamond also sank to the bottom, then after a few minutes you need to inspect it without removing it from the water. The edges of the natural stone will be blurred and hard to see, and the outlines of the synthetic product will remain clear.
5. Using a needle, toothpick, or pipette, try dripping water onto the diamond. If a drop has formed and it does not spread, even when it is pierced with a thin sharp object, then the stone is real.
6. In direct sunlight, the crystal should sparkle exclusively in shades of gray, but the fake will shine with all the colors of the rainbow.
7. If you shine a small flashlight through a stone, and a ray of light is clearly visible on the back side, then you have a fake in your hands. In a natural environment, multiple refraction of light rays occurs, due to which only a light halo is visible from the back side.
8. Under ultraviolet radiation, a diamond sparkles even brighter than under sunlight, and a fake usually sparkles with yellow-green hues.
9. A magnifying glass with 20-30x magnification will help to distinguish a diamond from a fake. If you examine the natural stone through it, you will notice minor defects and inclusions.

Diamond unlike other stones always available in high quality gold or platinum frames. A gold piece must have a fineness of 585, and a platinum one - 900.

It is possible to check the authenticity of a diamond at home using more complex methods that involve the use of third-party substances.

1. Butter. If you apply any fatty substance, for example, vegetable oil, to the surface of a mineral and apply it to a smooth vertical surface, then it will stick. When carrying out similar manipulations with an artificial specimen, it will simply slide down.
2. Hydrochloric acid... Genuine crystal has high strength and resistance to aggressive substances. It retains its original appearance and attractiveness, even if hydrochloric acid gets on its surface. And the appearance of a fake stone will noticeably change - cracks and deformations will appear.
3. A sharp drop in temperature. Try heating the gem over an open fire, for example, with a lighter, and then abruptly place it in cold water. If it is real, then nothing will happen, and the fake after such tests will be covered with cracks, become cloudy or deformed.

Instead of natural diamond, from which diamonds are made for inlaid jewelry, artificial analogues are often used. It can be quartz, cubic zirconia, zirconium, rock crystal, musanite or ordinary glass.It is quite difficult for a simple buyer to distinguish high-quality fakes, but if you know the main distinguishing features of the listed materials, then it will still be possible to independently recognize a fake.

• Zircon - a cultured diamond, which is very similar in appearance to a real gemstone, but at the same time it is very cheap. You can identify a fake with a magnifying glass. In zirconium, as a rule, there are colored impurities, and the back face is always bifurcated. In addition, when you put the jewelry on your hand and look through it, you can see the skin. A diamond is not allowed to do this, which is explained by the peculiarity of its internal structure.

• Cubic zirconia is zirconium dioxide, therefore it has almost the same characteristics as the above-described specimen. The main distinguishing features are high light conductivity and orange sheen shine.

• Musanite - a synthetic stone that is closest to the original. It can be recognized by its gray-green tint, and the presence of long narrow channels inside the product, which are visible under a magnifying glass. In addition, compared to a real diamond, mussanite shines much brighter.

• Glass - the cheapest analogue of a precious stone. The easiest way to distinguish a natural mineral from glass is to try to read text through it by attaching the product to a newspaper or magazine. The high density of the diamond will not allow this.

• Rhinestone - not the worst replacement for a diamond, because they are very similar in appearance. To distinguish a diamond from rock crystal, it is enough to drop water on it, and if the drop does not spread, it means that this is a real gem.

In order not to bother with checks, and not to wonder how to distinguish a diamond from quartz, glass or other stones, it is recommended to purchase jewelry exclusively from jewelry stores. Only in this case, you can demand from the seller a certificate of authenticity for jewelry inlaid with natural minerals.

You will learn how to determine the authenticity of a diamond at home in the video below.