For several months already a supply of blue cobalt-bearing spinel has been appearing in the gem trade, including some stones of remarkable size -up to 40 carats- and quality. According to information from reliable sources, the source of the new find is a deposit located...
In light of information gathered over the past few months, we have now added rubies to this colour stability testing protocol, specifically but not limited to rubies originating from Mozambique....
A selection of precious coral samples (with centimetre scales) seized by Swiss customs and whose species were identified using the new forensically validated Coral-ID method. Photos: SSEF.BASEL, SWITZERLAND: FEBRUARY 14, 2022 – An international research group led by scientists from the Swiss...
The parcel of 10 Zambian emeralds submitted to SSEF for testing, which was found to consist of nine emeralds from the Kafubu area, and one emerald from the Musakashi area. Photo: © SSEFAdvanced testing using Laser Ablation Inductively...
The latest edition (June 2021) of SSEF’s Facette magazine is now available online as a PDF. This magazine brings you reports of our latest gemmological research and findings, courses and other SSEF activities.- The Science of Gem Testing - New Afghan emeralds- Machine learning...
The first detailed study characterising an emerald type from Afghanistan that has recently become available in the gemstone trade has been prepared by a team of scientists from the Swiss Gemmological Institute SSEF, and published in the most recent edition of Journal of Gemmology. One...
Origin determination of emeralds is a fascinating subject. In our efforts to gain greater insights into gemstones from different origins, SSEF has developed a new machine-learning-assisted chemical data visualization approach for emerald characterisation.The case study compared 168 emeralds from different origins using a t-SNE (t-distributed stochastic neighbor...
The Swiss Gemmological Institute SSEF is introducing a new service to support the documentation of the origin and provenance of pearls, in partnership with the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Zurich. It is made possible by a substantial expansion of the organisation’s...
The latest edition (May 2020) of SSEF's Facette magazine is now available online as a PDF. This magazine brings you reports of our latest gemmological research and findings, courses and other SSEF activities.- Age dating of gems- GemTrack™- Laser inscription of gems- DNA fingerprinting of pearls...
BASEL, SWITZERLAND: MAY 19, 2020 - A breakthrough study entitled “DNA fingerprinting: an effective tool for taxonomic identification of precious corals in jewelry”, authored by researchers from the Swiss Gemmological Institute SSEF and the University of Zurich’s Institute of Forensic Medicine (IRM) and recently published in the leading peer-reviewed journal...