nomenclature, RW Hughes, gems

Sometimes it seems that wisdom in the gem business is in short supply. Take a two-carat Thai ruby of good quality. Say it sells for $5000. In contrast, the garnet of identical appearance sells for about $10. The difference? As far as the consumer is concerned, it's the name. With gems, the name is so important. Thus you could be forgiven if you think that this industry has an airtight method for determining just what those names are. Such is not the case. Gemology has made tremendous strides over the past century; Kunz, Bauer, Anderson, Webster, Sinkankas, Eppler, Shipley, Gübelin, Koivula and others have given us much, but the area of nomenclature remains untouched.