Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you awesome songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, former Tremolo frontman Justin Dillon sings about a cherished piece of jewelry in the group’s 2005 release, “Promise Ring.”
Dillon believes that beyond being a symbol of the bond between him and his girlfriend, the promise ring will protect them from “the bitter tide.”
He sings, “Long ago, I drew a line into the sand / Jumped across and held your hand / Band of gold protect us from the bitter tide / That comes to wash away our words with time / Hello you, Hello me / Hello hello, can’t you see / Love is more than what it seems / So I wear your promise ring.”
“Promise Ring” is the fifth track from the San Francisco-based band’s first full-length album, Love Is The Greatest Revenge. The album is a collection of songs written and recorded by the band during 2003 and 2004.
Trivia: An early demo version of “Promise Ring” was used in the 2003 Mandy Moore flick, How to Deal.
When the album came out in August of 2005, Tremolo announced that 50% of its profits would be dedicated to the “Love>Revenge Fund” — a fund that allowed fans to determine which organizations would benefit. At the time, the fund’s website described Tremolo’s debut album as “an auto-biographical social commentating post-deconstructionist protest record” that asks “what if love was the greatest revenge and music could change the world?”
In an interview with last.fm, Dillon described Tremolo’s music as “one hand holding onto the roots of the grass and one hand reaching to the stars in the sky.”
“I’m looking for this ‘otherliness,’ this transcendence. That’s the reason I think music is here,” he said at the time. “I want to be part of touching something that is greater than the sum of its parts.”
In 2011, Dillon founded the award-winning website slaveryfootprint.org in conjunction with the US State Department. The site, which asks the question, “How Many Slaves Work For You?” allows consumers to visualize how their consumption habits are connected to modern-day slavery.
The musician-turned activist is now the CEO and founder of FRDM, a company that assists Global Fortune 500 brands with mapping, monitoring and mitigating human rights and climate risks in their supply chains. He is also the author of A Selfish Plan to Change the World: Finding Big Purpose in Big Problems (2017).
Please check out the audio track of “Promise Ring.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“Promise Ring”
Written by Justin Dillon. Performed by Tremolo.
Long ago, I drew a line into the sand
Jumped across and held your hand
Band of gold
Protect us from the bitter tide
That comes to wash away our words with time
Hello you, Hello me
Hello hello, can’t you see
Love is more than what it seems
So I wear your promise ring
Promises made under the rite of spring
Heavy under summer’s sting
Say you know,
I’d run to where the spaceships land
A million miles between my mouth and hand
Hello you, Hello me
Hello hello, can’t you see
Love is more than what it seems
So I wear your promise ring
Love labors through the night
It bleeds and never fights
And like a seed it lives because it dies
So don’t forget, just like cash
I walk the line
Like a soldier guarding what is mine
Hello you, Hello me
Hello hello, can’t you see
Love is more than what it seems
So I wear your promise ring
I wear your promise ring
Credit: Screen capture via YouTube.com / Guideposts.
If your travels take you through southern New England this summer, be sure to stop into the Yale Peabody Museum, which officially reopened its Halls of Minerals, Earth, and Space to the public earlier this month. Within the museum, the celebrated David Friend Hall showcases one of the world's foremost collections of minerals. More than 170 specimens — some of them the largest and rarest of their kind — are now on view in the stunning and newly renovated galleries.
“I envisioned a mineral gallery for Yale designed to inspire rather than lecture," noted philanthropist David Friend. "So, we chose specimens that are jaw-droppingly beautiful. The room is subtly lit so that the specimens themselves shine, and there is a minimum of descriptive labelling. I want visitors to leave this hall overwhelmed by the beauty of what they have seen and anxious to go home and learn more, or even start collecting minerals themselves.”
David Friend Hall draws on some of the most significant private mineral collections in the United States. A 436-pound stibnite specimen donated by Robert Lavinsky, presented in a "frozen fireworks display," greets visitors as they enter the Hall. Once inside, visitors immediately view a giant 1,900-pound quartz crystal from Namibia and an enormous quartz sandstone concretion (photo, above).
The gallery integrates both free-standing, large-scale minerals with small-scale specimens in dynamic visual displays that are designed to rotate often. Customized cases and new, state-of-the art LED lighting, showcase the uniqueness of each specimen and its natural — often otherworldly — beauty.
The museum's current building, which dates back to 1925 and was named for international financier George Peabody, houses one of the nation's oldest collections of gems and minerals and the oldest meteorite collection in North America, approaching 100,000 mineral specimens and over 3,000 meteorites.
Among the many donors and lenders who contributed to the project, the Yampol Family and The Mineral Trust loaned more than 200 specimens to the museum. A highlight of their contribution is "The Rocket," the largest elbaite specimen recovered from a legendary Brazilian mine.
The Yale Peabody Museum and David Friend Hall are located on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, CT. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Mondays.
Credit: Photo by Andrew Melien, courtesy of the Yale Peabody Museum.
A mother-daughter duo sauntering through London's Crystal Palace Park during an outdoor taping of BBC's Antiques Roadshow were shocked to learn that a diamond ring they found stashed in "mum's" sock drawer was a 4-carat, platinum-set treasure worth £20,000 ($25,800).
The mom and daughter hadn't intended to get the ring appraised that day, but there was no queue to meet with fine jewelry consultant Joanne Hardy so they decided to give it a go.
The mom explained to Hardy that she and her daughter had been helping out her "mum" clear out some old items when they happened upon the ring that had been balled up in a sock and hidden in a sock drawer.
“No! I don’t believe that," Hardy exclaimed. "And it could have gone in the washing machine."
The guest added, "We could have just bundled everything up.”
“Given it to the charity maybe," Hardy said. "Oh my goodness!”
“When I said, ‘Mum, is this your ring?’ she said, ‘Oh yes I kept it in there so I didn’t lose it.’”
The mom said she was pretty sure it was given to her mum by her late grandfather.
After inspecting the ring, Hardy reported to the guests that the ring dates back to about 1915 and was crafted in platinum.
“It is absolutely superb," she said, adding that the diamond predates the modern brilliant cut.
"It is what we call a transitional cut," she said. "It’s [has] a soft, really soft look about it. You’ve got the facets, but nothing's sharp. The modern brilliant cut, to me, is quite brash, but this has such an air of sophistication."
Hardy said the diamond weighed nearly 4 carats and displayed fine clarity, except for a tiny natural flaw on the side. She showed the guests that one of the prongs was damaged and needed to be re-tipped.
“There’s one claw there that has come adrift,” Hardy joked.
Then the mother-daughter duo learned that if they were to sell the ring at auction, it would fetch about £20,000.
“Wow. Oh gosh. Oooh," the mom said.
“I won’t be taking it off my finger,” added the daughter.
Then the mom realized that they had work to do: “We'd better get that claw fixed quickly. Wow. Wow.”
“It is such a stunning, stunning ring," Hardy added. "It’s absolutely lovely."
Credits: Antiques Roadshow screen captures via BBC.co.uk.
In 1885, Russian Tsar Alexander III commissioned the House of Fabergé to create a fabulous Easter egg for his wife, the Empress Maria Feodorovna. The Tsar was so pleased with the result that he decided to establish a tradition that would last 33 years. Over that time, designer and master goldsmith Peter Carl Fabergé would create 52 eggs. He was given complete freedom to design the Imperial Easter eggs, under one stipulation. Each one had to contain a surprise.
In the spirit of Peter Carl, the Fabergé brand and gemstone miner Gemfields have collaborated on the latest Fabergé egg, a ruby-themed masterpiece released in July as a nod to the month for which ruby is the official birthstone. And like all the Fabergé eggs that came before, this one has a surprise hidden within — a fiery, deep red, 5-carat Gemfields Mozambican ruby.
As the pearl-embellished ring at the base of the egg is turned counter-clockwise, the five blades of the egg slowly unfurl, resembling the wings of an angel. This design element inspired the egg's name: "Malaika," which means angel in Swahili, one of the languages spoken in Mozambique.
Caressed within the angel wings is a removable rose gold filigree-like sphere on which the 5-carat ruby treasure is mounted. Carefully placed gaps within the design of the outer egg allows one to catch a glimpse of the surprise nestled within.
Elena Basaglia, Gemfields’ Head of Partnerships and Product – Downstream, described the shape of the ruby as a square cushion with softly bowed sides, offering an ideal window to enjoy the vibrant red body color and lively reflections within.
"The large spread of the gemstone means that no weight is hidden below the setting line, allowing maximum appreciation of its beauty," she said. "No visible inclusions are present within the gemstone, making it a deserving piece for this special egg.”
The luxurious piece features 308 rubies sourced at Gemfields' Montepuez mine, as well as 4,312 round brilliant-cut white diamonds, 252 round brilliant-cut brown diamonds, 421 round pink sapphires and 61 amethysts, all set in 18-karat rose gold. Peter Carl pioneered the use of rose gold, and the company that bears his name continues that tradition today.
The precious gemstones interplay with colorful guilloché enameling, an ancient and highly complex technique perfected by Peter Carl. Fabergé's UK-based craftspeople followed the same process of hand-painting the enameling powder onto the gold sections. It takes at least three layers and five firings in a kiln at 800 degrees centigrade to create the desired translucent effect, according to the company. A few seconds too long in the kiln and the piece would have to be re-started from scratch.
The Malaika Egg is valued at $1.2 million, with Fabergé pledging $100,000 from the sale to the Gemfields Foundation, which funds poverty-alleviating projects in communities near Gemfields’ mines in Mozambique and Zambia, and more widely in sub-Saharan Africa. Gemfields acquired the Faberge brand in 2013.
Credits: Images courtesy of Gemfields.
About 150 million miles away on the surface of Mars, NASA's one-ton Curiosity rover accidentally rolled over the top of a nondescript white rock, busting it apart to reveal the beautiful yellowish-green crystals of pure sulfur that were inside.
While NASA scientists had long known about the presence of opal on the Red Planet, the discovery of elemental sulfur was a complete surprise.
“I think it’s the strangest find of the whole mission and the most unexpected,” Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told CNN. “I have to say, there’s a lot of luck involved here. Not every rock has something interesting inside.”
The discovery took place on June 7, the 4,208th Martian day of Curiosity's mission, which began in August of 2012. After accidentally smashing the rock, the rover used an instrument on the end of its robotic arm, called the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer, to determine its composition.
Vasavada described the Martin pure sulfur crystals as having a “beautiful, translucent and crystalline texture.”
The most beautiful specimens of sulfur crystals on Earth have a bright yellow appearance, similar to citrine. The major difference is that citrine has a rating of 7 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness and sulfur rates a relatively soft 2.5. Sulfur is similar in hardness to a cultured pearl and can be scratched with a fingernail.
If you believe that Martians may have once inhabited the fourth planet from the Sun, it's unlikely they were making their sulfur crystals into jewelry. The material is extremely brittle and difficult to facet. What's more, when moisture (even perspiration) or heat is applied to the stone, it smells nasty — like rotten eggs.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported that the collection of fragments from the smashed rock measured about 5 inches (13cm) across. They hadn't expected pure sulfur to be present on the planet and now they are trying to decipher how sulfur contributed to Mars' evolution.
“No one had pure sulfur on their bingo card,” Vasavada told CNN.
On Earth, sulfur occurs naturally in the environment and is the fifth most abundant element by mass. Pure sulfur is often connected with volcanic activity.
Back in January of 2023, a research team analyzing archived data from NASA’s Curiosity rover identified a “halo” of networks along the Martian landscape that are likely rich in opal. Since the iridescent gem is formed from water and silica, the findings provided additional evidence that the Red Planet had a watery past that could have supported microbial life.
Credits: Mars sulfur crystals image by NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Sulfur crystal photo by Ivar Leidus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons..
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fun songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town demands an engagement ring and a walk down the aisle in the high-energy 2010 country hit, “Little White Church.”
Fairchild portrays a young woman who is fed up with her boyfriend — a “charming devil” with a “silver tongue.” He’s been skirting a marriage commitment for far too long, and now Fairchild needs to lay down the law. From here forward, he won’t be riding this “gravy train” until he buys her a shiny ring and takes her down to the little white church.
She sings, “You’ve been singing that same old song / Far too long, far too long / Say you’ll buy me a shiny ring / But your words don’t mean a thing.”
Co-written by Little Big Town band members Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Jimi Westbrook and Phillip Sweet, along with Nashville-based songwriter Wayne Kirkpatric, “Little White Church” was inspired by a phrase jotted down in Fairchild’s notebook.
Sweet told songfacts.com that a writing session turned into an avalanche of creativity when they started working on “Little White Church.”
“And it came together pretty fast,” Sweet said. “Karen had the idea written in her book… because you drive around [Franklin] Tennessee and you see all these beautiful, quaint, picturesque, little white churches all over the place.”
Fairchild wanted the song to incorporate a bluegrass-inspired musical form called “call and response,” which can be heard in the rousing “take me down, take me down” chorus.
"It sounds and feels like we had fun, because we did," Sweet said.
“Little White Church” was the lead single from Little Big Town’s album The Reason Why. The song climbed to #6 on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and had crossover success on the US Billboard Hot 100, topping out at #59.
Founded in 1998 in Homewood, AL, Little Big Town has earned three Grammy Awards out of 15 nominations. The group is credited with 24 singles on Billboard's Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, including two #1s and six others in the Top 10.
Little Big Town is on the road through mid-December with stops in the US, UK, Switzerland and Scotland.
Check out the group's performance of "Little White Church" live at CMT's Summer Camp in 2022. The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“Little White Church”
Written by Jimi Westbrook, Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet and Wayne Kirkpatrick. Performed by Little Big Town.
You’ve been singing that same old song
Far too long, far too long
Say you’ll buy me a shiny ring
But your words don’t mean a thing
No more calling me baby
No more loving like crazy
Till you take me down (take me down)
You better take me down (take me down)
Take me down to the little white church
Take me down (take me down) take me down (take me down)
Take me down to the little white church
Take me down
You can’t ride this gravy train
Anymore, anyway
There’s a price for keeping me
Well, I ain't cheap and I ain’t free
No more calling me baby
No more loving like crazy
Till you take me down (take me down)
You better take me down (take me down)
Take me down to the little white church
Take me down (take me down) take me down (take me down)
Take me down to the little white church
Take me down
Come on
Charming devil, silver tongue
Had your fun, but now you’re done
Mama warned me ’bout your game
She don’t like you anyway
No more calling me baby
No more lovin' like crazy
No more chicken and gravy
Ain’t gonna have your baby
Till you take me down (take me down)
You better take me down (take me down)
Take me down to the little white church
Take me down (take me down)
You better take me down (take me down)
Take me down to the little white church
Take me down to the little white church (take me down)
Take me down (take me down to the little white church)
Take me down (take me down)
You better take me down (you better take me down)
Take me down to the little white church
Take me down (take me down)
Take me down to the little white church
Take me down (take me down)
You better take me down (take me down)
Take me down to the little white church
Take me down to the little white church, take me down to the little white church
Credits: Photo by Eagledj, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Gold prices surged to an all-time high of $2,482 per ounce yesterday, sparked by expectations of a Fed interest-rate cut in September. Yesterday's record price is nearly 29% higher than a year ago ($1,926) and almost 72% higher than five years ago ($1,446).
With gold experiencing an astonishing ascent, let's take a look at the US facilities that secure the largest reserves of gold bullion.
The US Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, KY, secures about half of the US Treasury's gold reserves. Holdings amount to 147.3 million ounces (4,176 metric tons), and it's believed that Fort Knox houses 2.3% of all the gold ever refined in the world.
Located on the site of a military base that dates back to 1918, the Depository commenced operations in 1937 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed controversial legislation that prohibited the private ownership of gold. US citizens were compelled to sell their gold bullion back to the government. This legislation effectively bolstered the value of the US's reserve of the yellow precious metal by $8 billion.
The granite-lined vault at Fort Knox gained fame as one of the most secure places on Earth. The main vault door reportedly weighs 20 tons and is 21 inches thick. The robust 1930s construction was designed to withstand an aerial bombing.
Fort Knox has never had a security breach, unless you count the efforts of tycoon Auric Goldfinger in the James Bond thriller, Goldfinger (1964). In the film, the villain hatches a plan to increase the value of his own gold holdings by raiding the Depository and contaminating the US bullion supply.
The US Mint also stores gold in five other secured facilities, with the largest operating in West Point (54.1 million ounces) and Denver (43.8 million ounces).
About 800 miles east of Fort Knox, the basement of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in Lower Manhattan houses 507,000 gold bars weighing 6,331 metric tons and valued at more than $200 billion.
Located five stories below street level at 33 Liberty Street, the vault is so heavy it relies on the bedrock of Manhattan Island to hold its weight. The bedrock is 80 feet below street level and 50 feet below sea level.
The major difference between the Fort Knox and New York City facilities is that 95% of the Federal Reserve Bank's holdings in New York is gold owned by foreign governments and international investors.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's official website, much of the gold currently in the vault arrived during and after World War II as many countries wanted to store their gold reserves in a safe location. The bank is currently celebrating its 100th birthday.
Trivia: Not all gold bars are created equal. Bars cast in the US prior to 1986 were generally rectangular bricks. After that year, the US conformed to a long-standing international standard, which required a trapezoidal shape. The size of a standard gold bar is 7 inches long, 3 5/8 inches wide and 1 3/4 inches thick. The weight of a standard gold bar is 400 troy ounces or 27.5 pounds.
Credits: Gold bars photo by Stevebidmead, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Fort Knox photo by Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Federal Reserve Bank of New York building photo by Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Gold vault photo by Federal Reserve, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
World-class sprinters Xavier Worthy and Tia Jones, both clad in white and wearing sandals, held hands while relishing a slow, sandy walk toward the beachfront. This is where Worthy had prepared a candle-lit rose-petal pathway leading to a mammoth red-rose wreath flanked by free-standing white block letters spelling out "Marry Me."
Worthy, a first-round draft pick of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, got down on one knee and proposed to the track and field star with a stunning emerald-cut diamond set on a diamond-studded white metal band. Jones said, "Yes."
It was designed by Houston-based Leo Khusro, whose client base includes many NFL stars.
The romantic scene was documented as a video on the couple's shared Instagram page. The simple caption read, "The Worthy’s," punctuated by two emojis, a diamond ring and red rose. Jones made sure to show off her ring throughout the 60-second Reel.
Worthy and Jones could become the fastest couple to ever tie the knot. A wide receiver, Worthy recently set a record for the fasted 40-yard dash (4.21 seconds) in NFL Combine history. Back in February, Jones matched the indoor 60-meter hurdles world record of 7.67 seconds at the USATF Indoor Championships.
Jones sustained an ACL injury later in that USAFT meet and was still recovering when she just missed qualifying for the US Olympic Team, which will be competing in Paris later this month.
Still, it's been a whirlwind of excitement for the couple. Only a few weeks ago, they announced on Instagram that they had purchased a home together.
"We are home owners," wrote Jones. "Super blessed to be able to experience buying a home with the person you love!! Nothing more important than family and building a foundation!"
In early June, Worthy signed a four-year rookie contract worth $13.8 million.
Credits: Screen captures via Instagram / Xavierandtiaa.
The second-largest piece of the moon on Earth — an irregularly shaped blackish-brown specimen weighing about 94 pounds (42.7 kg) and similar in size to a rugby ball — is now part of a special exhibit at Portland International Jetport in Maine.
The display titled "Fly Me to the Moon" also features one of the largest pieces of Mars on Earth, samples of the most beautiful extraterrestrial substance yet discovered and an iconic Gibeon meteorite celebrated for its striking resemblance to Edvard Munch’s painting, “The Scream.”
All the specimens are on loan from the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum (MMGM), which is located in Bethel, about 70 miles north of the jetport. The special exhibit is set to run for five years.
According to Darryl Pitt, a consultant to the mineral museum and a meteorite dealer, the chunk of moon was found in Libya in 2021, and was likely blasted to the Earth when an asteroid struck the moon. No one really knows for sure when it fell to Earth.
“We are thrilled to have ‘Fly Me to The Moon’ at the jetport,” said Airport Director Paul Bradbury. “We love celebrating unique aspects of Maine and the MMGM is certainly among them.” The Jetport services more than 2.2 million passengers per year.
The name of the exhibit pays homage to Frank Sinatra's classic 1964 hit, which was often associated with the Apollo missions to the moon.
“This exhibit will be full of beautiful examples of meteorite specimens from the moon, Mars and the asteroid 4 Vesta," noted Dr. Cari Ciorrigan, the Curator of Meteorites at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. "Having all of these samples on exhibit together in an airport, free of charge to the public, is an amazing educational and inspirational opportunity for those lucky enough to fly through Portland!”
Nestled in the picture-postcard town of Bethel, MMGM is a world-class museum and education facility featuring 40,000 gems and minerals, 6,000 meteorites, a library of 10,000 volumes and 17 interactive exhibits that present Maine minerals and gems in the context of local mining history and Maine’s geology. The 15,000-square-foot museum opened its doors to the public for the first time in December of 2019.
Credit: Photo by Scott Hight, courtesy of Maine Mineral & Gem Museum.
An Ontario couple recently sought the help of CTV News Toronto after a $4,000 diamond engagement ring they purchased in February at a jewelry store in Cancun, Mexico, turned out to be a $50 fake.
The woman, who requested to be identified in a CTV News Toronto report under the pseudonym "May" because she was so embarrassed to have been caught in a fake diamond scam, said that she was "devastated" and "sickened" when, upon returning home, a certified appraiser told her the diamond wasn't real.
What was more appalling is that the jewelry store behind the scam was "highly recommended" by their tour guide.
"'They are perfect, you won't get scammed.' I remember them saying that specifically," she told CTV News Toronto.
The Cancun jeweler promised to forward to the couple via email all the documentation regarding the diamond's characteristics, including cut, clarity, carat weight and color. That never happened.
When the couple tried to have the charged reversed via their credit card provider, the company agreed to refund to the card, but then sided with the jeweler after the merchant complained.
The couple learned that they were on the hook for the full purchase price of $4,176.
"This was something that should have been a spur-of-the-moment, a beautiful moment, but turned into a headache for the last couple of months," May told CTV News Toronto.
The bottom line is that couples should avoid getting caught up in the moment. An engagement ring purchase has to be a clear-headed decision.
"You go down there, you're having a good time, and the salespeople just tell you what you want to hear," Steven Knight, a spokesperson with the Canadian Jewellers Association (CJA) told CTV News Toronto. "They're happy to take your money."
He also noted that consumers who buy abroad have limited protection if something goes wrong.
"You actually are gambling because there is no way you know what you are getting, and you're taking a chance spending that kind of money," said Knight.
CTV's Consumer Alert reporter Pat Foran reached out to the credit card company on the couple's behalf. A spokesperson for the card company told the reporter that the investigation was ongoing and a favorable decision already had been granted to the couple.
In a column called "The Smart Traveler’s Guide to Buying Jewelry on Vacation," Jewelers Mutual Insurance Company offered a number of helpful tips.
Check Up on the Business. Do your homework by checking the jeweler's website, social media pages and reviews. Check message boards for any signs of deceit.
Stick With Well-Known Brands. And pay a price that you would normally expect from that brand. If a store claims to be able to sell you a high-end luxury watch for a fraction of its value, it’s likely a knock-off. After all, these stores are looking for a profit, and it’s unlikely they were able to obtain the merchandise at such a deep discount.
Read the Return Policy. Make sure you’re able to return the item with no conditions.
Read all the fine print on the back of the receipt to make sure you’re not signing any type of “sales contract.” The American Society of Appraisers found that despite “guarantees” of a full refund if the item appraises for less than you paid, the fine print often lists tight conditions. For example: “No return for diamonds unless they grade at least 2 color grades different.” Says Jewelers Mutual, "No well-respected jewelry store needs a condition like that."
Beware of Import Taxes. Make sure to factor in any potential import taxes before you decide your jewelry shopping budget. You can check the latest US tariff data using their Interactive Tariff and Trade DataWeb. Canadian tariff info is here...
Pay with a Credit Card. As with all major purchases, having an electronic record will make it much easier to dispute any issues or return the item. Take advantage of this protection.
Experienced travelers know that unless you are a gemologist, or very knowledgeable about jewelry pricing, you're better off buying your fine jewelry at home from a reputable jeweler.
These same experienced travelers do acknowledge, however, that they will buy costume jewelry and handmade artisan pieces abroad.
For example, user 1025cruise on the cruisecritic.com message board commented, "Now, if you wanted to buy something unique, go for it. I've bought my wife jewelry in Bermuda from a shop in the mall there that looked nice, and wasn't priced too bad. I've also gotten her something in Cozumel, but it wasn't expensive at all and was something that really could only be gotten there (black coral)."
Credit: Image by Bigstockphoto.com.