Gem Encyclopedia

This is the Gemological Institute of America's own maintained reference on gemstone identity and properties, and its standing rests on GIA's documented role as the industry's own grading and gemological education authority rather than on the institution's name alone. It gives gemological identity, properties and associated folklore for the commercially recognised gemstones, information the Institute itself curates and updates. Use it for a gemstone's gemological identity and properties and for the folklore associations it documents; it is an industry reference rather than independent historical scholarship, so a claim about a stone's specific historical or cultural significance in one tradition needs a source dedicated to that tradition.