Rarity is one of the most prized qualities of gemstones. However, it isn't clear to people just how rare a given gem is. All of them are rare, but some are much more so than others. ... The most common crystallized mineral is quartz. Even today, with the popularity of outside activities, few people have ever seen a crystal in nature. Those who have are mostly prospectors, miners and rock hounds who go to known collecting sites. All told the crystallized minerals that we consider gem materials make up a tiny fraction of 1% of the earth's substance. ... Due to some excellent advertising, diamonds are believed to be the rarest of gemstones. One simple example will help put that into perspective: How many women do you know who don't own at least one diamond? In nature diamonds are rare, but not so in the gem world. ... Rubies and sapphires are different colored varieties of the mineral corundum. Now corundum is a fairly common mineral. Second only to diamond in hardness it has been mined extensively for abrasives. The emery on your emery boards and sand paper is corundum. ... Gem quality corundum is quite a bit rarer, consisting of only a percent or so of all the corundum found. The most common of the gem grade corundum is blue sapphire. Sapphire comes in every color of the rainbow and the other colors are rarer than the blues. This may be a bit of a surprise as the blue ones are so valuable. However, the law of supply and demand comes in here. Most of the people wanting a sapp

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