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All gemstones whether precious or semi-precious are examined for quality grading before purchase for usage, particularly in jewellery and other adornments. Similar to a diamond's evaluation for 4 C's a gemstone is evaluated for quality in five distinct aspects namely the gemstone's colour, cut, clarity, size and enhancements. For a gemstone, the measure of its beauty is in the purity of its colour and so a gemstone's colour is its most important characteristic which defines the stunning beauty of any gemstone. A gemstone's magnificence is in its colour's purity. However, the other aspects of quality evaluation having a lesser impact on the apparent beauty of a gemstone are equally significant.
Clarity is one of these fundamental characteristics and carries importance for quality grading of enchantingly coloured gemstones as it does for quality evaluation of purely transparent stones as the diamonds. However, there is a big difference between the clarity grading of the stunningly sparkling transparent diamonds and the magnificently dazzling coloured gemstones. In the case of diamonds, the least possible inclusions whether internal or external, even with magnification are desirable. The case is different for the coloured gemstones and this difference is rooted in the distinct definitions of desired beauty in the case of transparent diamonds and the hued gemstones. For coloured gemstones, the inclusions are assumed not to deteriorate the beauty of the stones or blemish their beauty which is contrary to the standards for sparkling transparent diamonds.
Gemstones are mineral crystals having different compositions of various elements and natural compounds chemically bound together to form these stones. The colour of each gemstone is the manifestation of its particular chemical composition. Given the environmental conditions and the fundamental elemental densities in each of these stones it has a hue and colour of its own and a presence of a distinctive mineral concentration, creating a secondary hue or blending well with the original colour itself, is rather universal to all coloured gemstones. Even the gemstones with the highest level of clarity and top quality grade score tend to have secondary hues and thus, contain a mineral concentration which is technically referred to as inclusions. Thus, identification of marks is not that queer in the case of any gemstone and a slightly included gemstone is bound to exist for natural reasons.
There are no standardised levels of clarity set for grading coloured gemstones which is the case for transparent stones as diamonds for which there exist internationally acclaimed clarity standards. When evaluating a coloured gemstone it is examined in terms of its own kind. All varieties of gemstones differ in standards of clarity given the differences in chemical compositions of different kinds of colour gemstones. The chemical composition of opals is dissimilar to that of emeralds and so these two varieties of gemstones have levels of inclusions naturally. Some gemstones have more inclusions than others only because of their kind, the composition contains more mineral concentrations than other kinds of gemstones. These inclusions, in all kinds of gemstones, do little to impact the apparent beauty of a gemstone which lies in the hue itself and inclusions are the least visible in tinted gemstones. Moderately included gemstones are value for money, they are strikingly enchanting and are less costly as compared to more cultured stone with fewer inclusions in them.
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