Gemstones can be described as the sophisticated and fascinating stones mounted in different jewelry items to make the wearer more attractive, charming and protect from unwanted circumstances. Like the two opposite characterized faces of the coin, gemstones too have one ugly side. All around the world due to high demand, adulterated stones and reconstructed stones are being sold under the different misleading names at the price of original gems. Clever jewelers and dealers use fancy trade names to influence the innocent buyers and fetch the high price for in genuine gemstones.

The true names for the gemstones are mostly derived either from Greek or Italian language. The original names are meaningful and carry some significance while the trade names are mere fanciful and created just to capture the minds of the ignorant buyers. The genuine names for all the gemstones are regulated through the International Association of Jewelry, International Colored Stone Association (ICA) and Federal Trade Commission. These organizations protect the consumers by providing the guides and related books consisting the details of the certified gemstone sellers and other necessary information about the gems like nature, quality, characteristics, strengths, weaknesses etc.

Names of gems are always of one word, very rare will be two words like Lapis Lazuli. The genuine gems do not have any countries name attached to it like Indian Topaz, Korean Jade, Japanese Amethyst etc. Such names are the trade names created by the retailers themselves for their gems to boast the sales. Buyer should check for the spelling of the gemstone, if spelled incorrectly then the stones is likely to be in genuine for example Alexandrine named for Alexandrite, Sapphirine for Sapphire. Natural gemstones are known by their true names without any additional descriptive words like water sapphire, eye clean emerald and so on. Trade names are completely fake and invented to mislead the potential buyers.

In this techno savvy world, with the developed technologies synthesized gems are created or poor quality gems are treated, that are sold under as natural stones. Buyers have to be careful about these lab created artificial gems. Glass and plastic are widely used for making the imitations. These are then given some fancy name and sold at the price of natural gemstone.

There are four types of gemstone enhancements viz. heat treatment, irradiation, chemical treatment, and assembly. Few natural stones are quite tender and require some treatment to attain the stability. Only after the treatment, such stones can be used for making the jewelry items. Reputable dealers always mention the facts about the treated gems to the buyers and also explain the reason for the same. But, few treatments are performed to fool the gullible buyers. These treatments are done so well that it is almost impossible to detect the faulty stone at the first glance. Names are one of the means to judge about the originality of the stone. In order to assist the buyer in identifying the true stone, this article provides the information about different misleading names being frequently used for selling precious and semi precious gemstones. Diamond, Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire are the precious stones and rest all are the semi precious stones.

Diamond - This precious stone is the most popular gemstone and always in high demand. Women in each and every part of the universe wish to possess this ultimate beauty. Every country has millions of buyers and hundreds of sellers. Some are genuine while others are fake. Unnatural diamonds are sold under many misleading names. American diamond is a man made diamond imitation or glass sold as natural diamond. It is usually used in artificial stone jewelry. It is also used for gold and silver ornaments. Infact, many jewelers sell American diamond too under different trade names.

Other trade names used are Arkansas diamond, Alencon diamond, Alaska diamond, Baffa diamond, Bohemian diamond, Briancon diamond, Brighton diamond, Bristol diamond, Buxton diamond, Cape May diamond, Cornish diamond, Herkimer diamond, Dauphin diamond, German diamond, Hawaiian diamond, Horatio diamond, Hot Springs diamond, Irish diamond, Lake George diamond, Mari/marmora/marmarosch diamond, Mexican diamond, Mutzschen diamond, Occidental diamond, Paphros diamond, Pecos diamond, Quasima diamond, Quebec diamond, Rhine diamond, Saxon diamond, Colorado diamond, Radium diamond, Schaumberg diamond, Stolberg diamond, Tasmanian diamond, Trenton diamond, Vallum diamond, Washita diamond and Zabeltitzen diamond. These all are actually colourless rock crystal quartz that are treated and sold as original diamonds.

Some other stones sold as natural diamonds under the various faulty names are - Alpine diamond is pyrites. Arabian magic diamond is lab-grown colourless or yellow corundum. Alaskan Black diamond is hematite in true sense and not a natural diamond. Jourado diamond is colorless synthetic spinel and Nevada black diamond is obsidian. Rainbow magic diamond is synthetic rutile.

Ceylon diamond, Matura diamond and Ranggon diamond are colorless zircon while Finder's diamond, Killiecrankie diamond, Mogok diamond are colorless topaz. CZ diamond is an inexpensive manmade diamond imitator similar to American Diamond.

Emerald - Emerald is the green coloured precious stone and very expensive. Synthetic gemstone possessing features of emerald are sold at cheaper rates. Few unethical jewelers sell synthetic emerald at the price of original under trade names Chatham emerald, Gilson emerald

Peridot is a semi precious gemstone. It is a genuine gem and looks very similar to emerald but costs quite less than true emeralds. It can be purchased but at its own price and not at the price of the emerald. Many retailers would sell peridot at the price of natural emerald under the name Night emerald, Bastard emerald and Evening emerald.

Green fluorspar is sold as Bohemian emerald, Emerald matrix, Mother-of-emerald, South African emerald and Transvaal emerald. Stone dioptase is sold as Copper emerald, Congo emerald, Pyro emerald and Emerauldine. Crystalline emerald, Gibsonville emerald and Indian emerald are quartz that appear like emeralds after the treatment.

Green glass imitation is sold at huge price under the name Broghton emerald, Electric emerald, Ferrer's emerald, Medina emerald, Endura emerald and Spanish emerald. Emeraldine, Lithia emerald, Mascot emerald etc are few other misleading names.

Tecla emerald is false triplet while Emeraldite and Emeralite are green coloured tourmaline. Other fake stones are Vanadium emerald is green beryl colored with vanadium, Uralian emerald is garnet, Cape emerald is prehnite, Prismatic emerald is euclase and Oriental emerald is green coloured sapphire. All these stones are of poor quality and available at fraction of price of natural emerald.

Ruby - It is red coloured precious stone loved across the globe. Original rubies fetches huge price. Jewelers sell reconstructed stones named as Geneva ruby, Wyse ruby at original price of the rubies.

Garnet like peridot is a semi precious stone emitting similar features like ruby. It can substitute ruby in the jewelry items maintaining the beauty of ornaments. It is priced much less than ruby. Buyers are misleaded when garnet is sold at the price of original ruby. The common names under which garnet is sold as ruby are Adelaide ruby, Australian ruby, Bohemian ruby, Alabandine ruby, American ruby, Black Hills ruby, California ruby, Montana ruby, Mountain ruby and Rocky Mountain ruby. Pyrope is another variety of garnet which is also sold as ruby as Arizona ruby, Cape ruby, Colorado ruby, Fashoda ruby, Elie ruby and Rock ruby.

Other red coloured semi precious stones sold as ruby are - Tourmaline named as Brazilian Ruby, Siberian ruby and San Diego ruby. Quartz as Ancona ruby and Mont Blanc ruby. Spinel is sold as Balas Ruby, Pomegranate ruby and Ruby spinel. Timur Ruby and Black Prince's Ruby are also red spinel and very popular in British jewelry. Red zircon is named as Unripe ruby.

Sapphire - It is the precious stone treasured for many years by all the age groups. Like diamond it is also expensive and preferred for the jewelry items worn daily. Due to high demand semi precious stones are enhanced through various treatments and sold as original sapphires.

Iolite and Cordierite are the semi precious stones sold as sapphire in the name of Lux sapphire, Lynz sapphire and Water sapphire. Other stones are blue coloured tourmaline as Uralian sapphire while blue coloured spinel as Hope sapphire and Sapphirine. Lapis with flecks of pyrite is sold as Gold sapphire. Tokay lux sapphire is black obsidian and Meru sapphire is blue zoisite. Lab created sapphire is presented to the buyers as Burma sapphire.

Alexandrite - It is semi precious stone but more worthy in terms of money than diamonds. It is nature's wonderful miracle as it changes the colour in different light sources. Original alexandrite is very rare and most expensive. Few buyers end up paying the original price for lab created gems named as Alexandrine or Synthetic alexandrite often created from synthetic corundum or spinel.

Sometimes jewelers show colour change of garnet to the customers and sell it as Alexandrite garnet at the price of natural gemstone. Similarly colour change sapphire is sold as Blue alexandrite.

Agate - This gemstone comes in many different colours. It is procured quite easily. It is priced moderately still many jewelers sell poor quality stone as agate. Glass agate and Iceland agate are basically poor quality of obsidian that are treated and later sold as agate. Similarly, glass opal simulant is named as Lake Superior fire agate or Mexican agate and sold at the price of pure agate.

Amazonite - It is an opaque beauty that varies in color from yellow-green to blue-green. It is confused many times with another semi precious stone called as Jade.

Amber - Amber is commonly used in different jewelry items. At present it is one of the most popular semi precious stones collected by the people in every country. The trade names used for selling imitations and resins as amber are Amberine, Australian amber, Black amber and Earth stone.

Amethyst - It is purple in colour and most affordable gemstone. Lab created synthesized stones and other treated stones are sold as amethyst under the fancy names like Japanese Amethyst, Desert amethyst, False amethyst and Lithia amethyst. Bengal amthyst is the treated poor quality purple sapphire.

Ametrine - It is a beautiful natural combination of two stones viz. amethyst and citrine. It contains purple colour of amethyst and yellow colour of citrine. Two colours in one stone - is the beauty of ametrine. Market offers many lab created ametrine sold under the name synthetic ametrine. Buyers need to be cautious of this descriptive name of the gem.

Andalusite - Andalusite is orange brown or yellowish green in colour. It is more preferred for men's jewelry. The misleading term used for this gem is Earth stone and Feldspar apyre.

Aquamarine - It is the gemstone related with water therefore, it comes in all shades of blue. This gem is rare and expensive. Many sellers sell blue cheap topaz at the price of Aquamarine named as Nerchinsk aquamarine. In the same way blue green zircon is sold as Siam aquamarine. Other names used to mislead the buyers are Mass aqua and Synthetic aquamarine.

Aventurine - This semi precious gemstone is soft stone, semi translucent to opaque in nature. It is an inexpensive gemstone. Some people associate this gem with 'patron Saint Andrew' thus refer aventurine as Andrew or Andre. Sometimes it is also sold as Aventurescence.

Bloodstone - It is dark green coloured stone with bright red spots. It is also called as Heliotrope. It possess similar properties as that of quartz. The trade name used to sell this gem is Bottlestone that basically is moldavite cut gems.

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