\Are garnets and sapphire a precious or a semi-precious ones?

Question

Recently my friend bought a jewel in gold for $3000,it is made of full gold and has garnet stones in them...the seller told that garnets are precious ones and they never get destroyed...in internet many sites say taht they are semi ones only, what abt sapphire?

Answer 1

Historically gemstones have been classified as precious stones or semi-precious stones. Because such a definition can change over time and vary with culture, it has always been a difficult matter to determine what constitutes precious stones.

That being said, sapphires are most often considered precious gemstones.  However, garnets are generally termed as semi-precious stones.

All gemstones, whether precious or semi-precious, can be destroyed by a well-placed blow. The ability of a gemstone to resist scratching and chipping is determined by its hardness using the Mohs scale.  The Mohs hardness scale runs from 1-softest, which is talc to 10-hardest. which is diamond.  

There are different varieties of garnets.  Each variety has its own hardness.  The see a listing of the varieties and their hardness, go to:

http://www.gemsociety.org/info/gems/Garn...

Answer 2

The lepidus was cpartially correct, garnet is between the pracious and semi precious stones, by value, but sapphire is just a semiprecious stone.

These times, when most of previously precious stones can be mass manufactured manmade, very few stones can stand

the precious category.

But for new synthetic stones rose to semiprecious level, like circonium,- for instance .

Answer 3

Garnet is semi-precious and sapphire is precious, generally speaking.  That is how they are usually categorized.

That does not necessarily mean that a sapphire is more valuable than a garnet -it depends on the type and quality of the stones.

For example, demantoid garnets are (all else being equal), more valuable than blue sapphires.

The usual dark red garnets are the least valuable "type" of garnet.

Read more and see pictures on the site below