• CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    7 hours ago

    It’s so arbitrary that Amethyst used to be one of the most expensive precious stones, before huge mines were discovered and it lost its status

    The split of semiprecious vs precious is essentially 18th century marketing BS, it’s not relevant nowadays, even to jewelers.

    Some of the most expensive stones aren’t even part of the “precious” stones because they were discovered recently, and since the term is obsolete even to jewelers there’s no one to push the term on those new gems, like Alexandrite (which is more expensive than diamond)