Ruby Sapphire Emerald Gemstone

The pie chart on this page shows the share of colored stone imports on a dollar value basis that went to the categories of sapphire ruby emerald and all other gemstone varieties during the 2015 calendar year.

Ruby sapphire emerald gemstone. The precious categorization is a reference to value. Members of the north carolina legislature declared emerald the state s official gemstone. The reasons for which are stated below rarity. The traditional classification in the west which goes back to the ancient greeks begins with a distinction between precious and semi precious.

Similar distinctions are made in other cultures in modern use the precious stones are diamond ruby sapphire and emerald with all other gemstones being semi precious. Ruby is the most popular red gemstone and sapphire is the most popular blue gemstone. Gem materials found in north carolina include aquamarine beryl citrine emerald garnet moonstone rose quartz ruby sapphire smoky quartz staurolite topaz tourmaline and many others. Until recently only emerald ruby and sapphire were officially called precious gems.

Diamond ruby sapphire and emerald are considered precious stones while the other stones fall in the category of semi precious ones. A really fine. Everything else was called semi precious.