Terms of Business

  1. Our business hours are 9AM to 4PM Mountain Time, Monday through Friday. We may also be away during shows and buying trips. During these hours, please, leave a message with your requests.
  2. All sales are by prepayment unless credit has been established with us in advance. We will hold requested items for seven days while awaiting payment.
  3. Add a minimum $6.00 for postage and insurance. Memorandum, approval, and credit card order will be charged for shipping at costs. International orders require a minimum $14.00 charge for shipping and insurance.
  4. Memorandum and approval orders have 15 days to return or pay for goods. All memorandum and approval orders require payment of shipping and insurance charges as they appear on the invoice. Returning merchandise should be shipped to us fully insured. We are not responsible for under-insured returning parcels.
  5. We accept VISA, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express for payment. All credit card orders are charged a minimum $6.00 for shipping and insurance regardless of the size of the order. For your protection, when sending credit card information by e-mail, please, break the number into two or more seperate messages. You may also call directly to set up an account with us.
  6. We usually ship within 2 business days of receiving your order or payment. Overnight and 2nd day shipping when requested are charged extra.
  7. Thirty day return privileges on unaltered goods. All gemstones are guaranteed as represented. Returns received after thirty days are subject to a minimum 10% restocking charge.
  8. Our Mailing Address:D&J Rare Gems, Ltd, P.O. Box 824, Salida, CO 81201
  9. Call us TOLL FREE at 1-800-869-7493, 1 719 530 0628, or FAX us at 1-719-539-5232
  10. Our hard copy newsletter is sent complimentary to non-customers for the first six months. Subscriptions for additional newsletter are $12/year for non-customers. Active customers receive their newsletter for free.
  11. Due to the recent increase in the frivolous requests for additional images and certificates we now require a $100 US non-refundable deposit prior to filling these requests. The deposit will be applied towards the purchase price of the gem.

Grading and Definition of Terms

Clarity
Our clarity grading is based on the appearance of the gem to the unaided eye.

Eye Clean
(eye clean) are gems that have no inclusions that are visible to the unaided eye. This classification would include gems classified as flawless by other dealers.

Very Lightly Included
(v lt incl) are gems that have very small or minor inclusions that do not affect the beauty or brilliance of the gem. These gems may often appear eye clean to the untrained eye.

Lightly Included
(lt incl) are gems that have visible inclusions that have little affect on the brilliance or beauty of the gem.

Moderately Included
(mod incl) are gems that have visible inclusion which have a very noticeable affect on the brilliance or beauty of the gem. A moderately included gem will still display brilliance. Gems such as emeralds and alexandrites often are moderately included.

Heavily Included
(hv incl) are gems that display numerous inclusion that greatly affect the brilliance and color of a gem. Heavily included gems are offered when they represent an extreme rarity or an affordable value in a normally expensive gem.

Terms such as Transparent, Translucent, and Opaque are used to describe cabochons with the clarity terms listed above when feasible.

Color

Color grading is based on tones and hues. Tone grading is as follows.

Colorless
is used to describe a gem that displays no color face up. On rare occasions these gems may have a slight tint of color when viewed table down.

Very Light
(V Lt) color describes a gem with just a tint of color. Some sources us the term pale for very light.

Light
(Lt) color displays a stronger with greater saturation..

Medium
(Md) color displays a middle tone. This is often a very desirable color.

Medium Dark
(Md Dk) is most often the most desirable of colors for a gem. Rubies, sapphires, and emeralds are considered the best color when the tone is medium dark.

Dark
(Dk) color will lose intensity or definition of color approaching black although the color is still discernable.

Very Dark
(V Dk) color appears black in reflected light and requires light to be transmitted through the gem to determine the color.

Intense is used as a modifier when the color saturation is such that the color is very vivid. Terms such as neon and electric are often used to describe intense color.

Hues are described with modifying hues listed first followed by the dominant hue. Bluish Green describes a color that is green dominant with blue modification. On some rare occasions more than one modifier may be present particularly in dichroic and pleochroic gems in which case all modifiers will be listed such as Yellowish, Bluish Green which describes a gem with dominant green tone modified by both yellow and blue.

Color Change gems are described with their natural or daylight color first followed by the artificial light color. A fine alexandrite’s color may be described as Md Bluish Green/Dk Purplish Red indicating it displays a dominant medium green with blue modifiers in daylight changing to a dominant dark red with purple modifiers under artificial light.

Cuts

The cuts used to describe various gems are accepted names in the trades such as emerald, round, oval, pear, marquise, princess and others.

Modifiers may be used to further describe thes cuts.

The term brilliant is used when the main pavilion facets meet at a point culet. Often these facets extend all the way fron the girdle to the culet.

The term step is used when the pavilion facets form a series of steps that usually meet along a line that forms the culet.

The term 16 Main is used in a brilliant cut when there are sixteen main facets producing brilliance in the pavilion instead of the usual eight. In lighter color and low refractive index gems this produces a much more lively result.

The term split sided is used when a normally flat side such as that found on a triangle is split into two parts. The result is often a much more brilliant gem.