If you just love to shop estate sales, internet auctions, antique stores, and flea markets to find great buys on jewelry, old or new, then you know how frustrating it can be to find a piece you really love with a price that is too good to be true, and yet be afraid to purchase it for fear it is not real, but a fake.

In this case you are a very good candidate for furthering your basic education in gem stone identification. At first glance the skill involved in this knowledge may seem overwhelming and complex, but there are some methods people use that give them more confidence in evaluating if a gem stone is real that are fairly easy to learn.

Fake gem stones are so much more prevalent today than at anytime in the past. The technique for making synthetic gem stones today is remarkable. There have been instances when even professionals have been put in doubt. If you shop for gems on a fairly regular basis, one of the basic tools you should invest in is a loupe. This neat little magnifying glass is made for one eye observation of gems and other up close inspection of jewelry.

The loupe will allow you to peer inside a stone to more clearly see what its flaws are. In natural gems, both diamonds and colored ones, flaws are always common. You will be able to see scratches and imperfections in faceting on the exterior of a stone more easily with the loupe, and as these exterior flaws can be found in real or fake gems, it may not necessarily tell you if the gem is real or not.

A gem is more likely to be real if you can see interior flaws. Small dark or fuzzy spots are common in a diamond. In an emerald, cracks are common because of the way the stones are formed. Natural rubies have a tendency to have needles, known as silk inside them. These are some basic things to look for when making a determination.

There are books and videos that you can buy that have color photographs that will help you even further. There is the Hodgkinson method of identifying gems that can be studied to help understand how light and rainbow effects of a gem can tell you more of their authenticity. This method is very enlightening and not too complicated to use. Investing in jewelry can be an expensive thing, and knowing what you are getting can be priceless.