For the ninth year in a row, Valentine's Day gift-givers will be spending more on jewelry gifts than any other category, according to a survey just released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics. The record-breaking $6.5 billion earmarked for jewelry is up a tick from last year's tally of $6.4 […]
A solid gold helmet dating back to the 5th century BC and cherished as a national treasure by generations of Romanians was stolen in the predawn hours of Saturday morning when three hooded thieves used explosives to blow out a door at the Drents Museum in Assen, the Netherlands. The intruders took three minutes to […]
Faced with evacuation orders as Hurricane Milton neared landfall on Florida's west coast, Melissa Martin quickly packed the family cars with their most important personal items. She remembered taking off her gold-and-platinum wedding band and placing it in her pocket as she tended the fish in her aquarium, but when she checked for the ring […]
When Julius Caesar led the first Roman invasion of Britain in 55 BC, Scottish pearls were on his mind. Pearls were a symbol of wealth and power in Ancient Rome, and at that time the world's very finest natural freshwater pearls came from the riverbeds of Scotland. Legend states that natural pearls held more value […]
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you heartwarming songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, country stars George Jones and Lacy J. Dalton sing about a very special piece of bridal jewelry in their 1984 duet, “Size Seven Round (Made of Gold).” The song chronicles the love story […]
On the same day Donald J. Trump was inaugurated in Washington, DC, as the 47th US president, an Indian lab-grown diamond company half a world away unveiled a 4.7-carat diamond uniquely faceted in his image. A team of five artisans from Surat-based Greenlab Diamonds LLP worked for three months on the project, which included growing […]
Last spring, a Botswana diamond exploration company began employing artificial intelligence (AI) to make sense of 380 gigabytes of survey data. In less than nine months, Botswana Diamonds PLC — with an assist from a mineral prospectivity technology called Xplore — has already identified seven kimberlite anomalies and applied for three prospecting licenses. Kimberlite pipes […]
On the second floor of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, there are three impressive specimens of a glassy yellowish gem so rare and so special that the ancient Egyptians used an identical material to adorn the breastplate of King Tutankhamun. It's called Libyan Desert Glass (LDG) and it's found in only […]
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you popular songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, Marina Diamandis, aka Marina and the Diamonds, stays true to her name in the 2012 international hit, “Primadonna.” In this song about a self-absorbed diva who “wants the world,” the sassy Welsh recording […]
A white gold wedding band pulled from the ashes symbolizes hope for a California firefighter who lost his home and possessions in a blaze that wiped out his Altadena neighborhood. Chien Yu and his family were forced to flee when the wind-whipped fires rapidly descended on their home last week. He noticed an orange glow […]