My Mumbai gem hunt turned into a comedy of errors

I was in Mumbai for a jewelry fair a while back. A local guy I met said he knew a great gem dealer. We went to this hidden shop down a narrow street. The dealer showed me these bright blue stones he called rare sapphires. Under my loupe, they were clearly just colored glass. We all had a laugh when I pointed it out. Now I never buy gems without testing them first, especially when traveling.

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3 Comments

brianfox7mo ago

That glass for sapphires trick is old as dirt. What tests do you do now besides just using a loupe? Was the local guy in on the scam or just clueless? How do you even find a real dealer in a place like Mumbai? You must double check every little thing now.

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jessicah917mo ago

Calling the glass trick 'old as dirt' isn't really fair because it's still the most common scam I see. Besides a loupe, I use a cheap polariscope to check for double refraction, which glass doesn't have. That local guy was probably just clueless, they often are. For Mumbai, you find real dealers by asking for family-run shops that have been there for decades, not the new ones.

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sagelane7mo ago

God that's everywhere now, not just with gems lol

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