Since two years, the SSEF has been working with the Laboratory for Neutron Scattering and Imaging at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) using their ICON beamline (cold neutron imaging) at the SINQ spallation source. The aim of these research projects in collaboration with Dr. Lehmann...
The daily routine at SSEF usually consists of testing rubies, sapphires, emeralds, pearls and diamonds. Although sometimes challenging and interesting, especially taking into account the quality and the documented historical provenance of some of these gems and jewellery items, it is also always of great...
Madagascar, an island of many gem treasures, saw in recent months another ‘sapphire rush’ after the discovery of a new gem deposit about 35 km east of the small town of Ambatondrazaka. ...
In early 2016, attractive bright purple garnets arrived at SSEF in Bangkok, Basel and Hong Kong. Based on client information, they are from a new mine, Padagaga in the Chimoio area in Mozambique, which was discovered recently....
Over the past few years, the SSEF has repeatedly seen gemstones (apart from emeralds) which contained fissures filled with oil or other fillers. These include rubies, sapphires, spinels, tourmalines, garnets and even rarities such as pezzottaite....
Recently, the Swiss Gemmological Institute SSEF had the opportunity to investigate an impressive natural nacreous formation with documented provenance dating back to the late 18th century, named the ‘Sleeping Lion Pearl’ due to its baroque shape that is reminiscent of a lion....
The diamond trade today is seriously concerned about synthetic diamonds mixed in with parcels of natural diamonds; however, we also propose here that the opposite situation of natural diamonds mixed in with batches of synthetic diamonds is also something to be concerned about and...
In 2016 the first emeralds appeared in the gem trade which reportedly came from new deposits discovered near the town of Shakiso in southern Ethiopia. Soon after, some of these stones partly of high quality were submitted to the SSEF and we were able to...
We would like to present three minerals which were tested in the past few months at SSEF and which at least partially made headlines in the news for collectors and aficionados of such gemmological rarities. ...
Emeralds from Afghanistan are well known in the trade for their beauty and size, and are considered a historic source of fine emeralds. Despite the political turmoil of recent decades, these mines have recently produced again a number of gems of outstanding quality and size,...