Supply and Marketing Information
A long chain of events marks the progress of rough gemstones from the time they leave the mine to the time they are placed before a buyer, transformed into brilliant objects of beauty. At each stage the parcel of rough is examined by an expert whose livelihood depends on the infalli¬bility of his judgment. Gradually the parcel is sorted out into various grades, from poor to superlative, and defective pieces removed. When at last the rough reaches the hands of the cutter it is subjected to the most critical scrutiny yet, for it is here that the promise in the colorful crystals is converted into gleaming, salable reality. The personal attention that each gemstone receives along the way contributes to the final cost and it is the purpose of this chapter to explain the workings of the system for the benefit of those who wish to deal in gems or wish to know how the gems they own came into being and why they are so costly.

NATURAL RARITY OF GEMSTONES
As mentioned before, most gemstones are minerals or rocks and occur in favored sites in the earth’s crust or in the gravels that result from the weathering of rocks. It is truly remarkable how little of the millions of tons of minerals exposed to our view consists of beautifully crystallized minerals such as might be useful for gems. Of those that seem useful for gems, only a very few actually meet the standards, that is, are sufficiently beautiful, durable, rare, and large enough to be cut into salable stones. As a class of natural objects, gemstones are exceedingly rare while rarer still are those which will produce first-class gems. Thus one of the factors that makes gems esteemed, rarity, is already an inherent feature.