Pearls have always been in a league of their own. As souvenirs from the depths of New World waters in the 15th century, they were simply something diamonds, emeralds, and rubies could never be: alive.

The Giga Pearl weighs 27kg (60lbs) and insurers say it is worth up to $200m. But its owner is in no rush to sell it.

In medieval Europe, gemstones were used to decorate jewelry for their symbolic significance as well as their beauty. In this video, British Museum curator Naomi Speakman decodes dazzling medieval jewels including pearls, sapphires, diamonds, and toadstones.

Brilliant Earth has NO presence during the mining of their diamonds, has NO idea where their diamonds come from, and has NO way of knowing the age of their diamonds. The diamonds provided by brilliant earth are totally untraceable and could have easily been mined in a conflict zone.

A British Museum expert says the Leekfrith Iron Age Torcs are of international importance.

An exceptional year for Danish archaeologists just keeps getting better.

From their relationship to his proposal to her wedding ring, everything was pretty picture perfect for Sophie and Aaron Long. But six weeks before the big day, doctors diagnosed Sophie with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. For Sophie, it meant chemotherapy and weight loss. But after seven months, she beat the cancer. When she regained the weight she had lost from treatments, Sophie needed her wedding band and engagement ring resized. She said Kay Jewelers, where Aaron purchased the set, said the rings couldn't be altered as she needed, so the store would replace the rings with new ones two sizes bigger.

Shor International sells tools and supplies for precious metal refining, jewelry making, silversmithing, polishing, weapons cleaning, and much more.

The Aztec rulers often expressed their power with body modification, such as labrets pierced through the lower lip.

In 1999, while taking a break from my PhD to try to get rich in the fine jewellery business, I nearly became the world’s largest counterfeiter of Fabergé eggs. It all started in Arlington, Texas, where my brothers and I owned several jewellery stores. Boris, an alcoholic Russian ex-pat who’d been with us for years, came into my office one January morning... By Clancy Martin. (Feb. ’09)

A jewelry feud, set in Jaipur and on Madison Avenue. By Eric Konigsberg.

The world's biggest known sapphire was formed and shaped by natural processes millions of years ago.

A Hong Kong billionaire spent a record $48.4m buying an 12.03-carat diamond dubbed “Blue Moon” for his seven-year-old daughter in an auction in Geneva. Property tycoon Joseph Lau bought the rock at a Sotheby’s auction on Wednesday and immediately renamed it “Blue Moon of Josephine” after his daughter.

It was once the world's largest-known diamond, is worth a reported £100m and is currently part of Britain's crown jewels. But India wants it back. Bollywood stars and businessmen have united to instruct lawyers to begin legal proceedings in London’s High Court to return the Koh-i-Noor diamond.

An 8.52 carat diamond has been found by a Colorado woman at Arkansas' Crater of Diamonds State Park at Murfreesboro. Park officials said Friday that the gem found by Bobbie Oskarson of Longmont, Colorado, is the fifth largest diamond found since the park was established in 1972. The park does not provide an estimate of the diamond's potential value.

After Russian mining company Alrosa recently dug up a huge 76.07 carat diamond, we look at the most expensive in the world.

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A Swiss company wants to change the way people mourn by transforming the remains of their loved ones into gems.

Sounds like the makings of a mystery: A cache of diamonds was found in a trunk after sitting undiscovered for years.