Precious stones to match wedding anniversaries

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"Linda’s been the driving factor when it came to planning this wedding, and Linda, it was perfect! All your hard work paid off, and I must say I’m honoured to be part of the only 5 minutes that you didn’t get to plan!"

Pick the correct gemstone to celebrate your anniversary in style and show how much you value your partner. Precious stones are minerals cut and polished into gemstones for use in jewelry. These sought-after and expensive jewels are prized for their beauty and scarcity value. They're made into highly desirable elegant and fashionable pieces, some including precious stones to match wedding anniversaries.

1. Rubies for a 40th Wedding Anniversary

   • A ruby is the traditional gift for a 40th wedding anniversary. These precious stones are the second hardest and most valuable of gems. Colors vary from pink to deep red and violet. Their prices are determined by color, cut, size in carats and clarity. A ruby with no flaws commands the highest price. The most expensive kind are a bright red known as "pigeon blood red." Chemically speaking, rubies are types of corundum, or aluminum oxide, getting their red color from the presence of chromium. Their name comes from "ruber," the Latin word for red. Treatments to improve the appearance of rubies include drilling to remove imperfections and heating to boost clarity. Rubies are extracted from the earth by mining. They come from countries like Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

   Sapphires for a 45th Wedding Anniversary

   • Sapphires are precious stones from the mineral corundum. Trace elements in this mineral are responsible for the wide range of colors in sapphires. They can be white, light to deep blue, red, violet, yellow or green. Red sapphires are correctly referred to as rubies. Purple sapphires contain vanadium, yellow and green ones have traces of iron and pink sapphires contain chromium. Sapphires are mined in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Australia, Thailand and Madagascar. Some gem-grade stones are found in U.S. locations like Utica, Montana and Franklin, North Carolina.

   Emeralds for a 55th Wedding Anniversary

   • Emeralds are traditional gifts for the 55th wedding anniversary. They're a type of the mineral beryl tinted by traces of chromium. Emeralds come in shades ranging from pure green to pale yellow or blue-tinged green. These gemstones require more care than diamonds or rubies, because they are the most fragile of precious gems. Emeralds are mined in countries like Colombia, Brazil, Zimbabwe, India, Madagascar and Pakistan. In the U.S., a few gemstone-grade emeralds come from Gastonia in North Carolina.

   Diamonds for a 10th, 30th or 60th Wedding Anniversary

   • Modern and tradition wedding authorities list diamonds as precious stones appropriate for 10th, 30th and 60th wedding anniversaries. Diamonds are clear, transparent stones made from almost pure crystalline carbon. Fancy, or colored diamonds, take their colors from trace elements, such as boron, which produces a blue tinge. Colors of diamonds include pink, blue, green, yellow, violet and black. The classification of colors according to the Gemological Institute of America, or GIA, scale ranges from colorless "D" grade to a light yellow "Z" grade. Diamonds are the hardest of precious stones and can scratch all other minerals. This makes them very suitable for an anniversary ring for everyday wear. Nearly 50 percent of diamonds come from South African. Other sources include Canada and New South Wales, Australia.

Source: www.ehow.com

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