Synthetic and Simulated Diamonds
A syntetic diamond is a man-made material

A synthetic gemstone is one that has the entire chemical and physical properties of its natural counterpart but those properties are put together by man in a laboratory. A simulant is a different gem that is cut to look like a diamond and is used as a diamond substitute.

There are many stones that are cut to look like diamonds. The big scare back in the 1960's was fabulite, in the 70's it was cubic zirconia, but today we can all pick out these materials as non-diamonds with relative ease. Today there is a new material coming out on the market it is called synthetic moissanite.

Synthetic moissanite is the hardest gem next to diamond. On the Mohs scale synthetic moissanite is rated 9.25 and a diamond is a 10. This is actually a big difference. Synthetic moissanite is not hard enough to polish sharp facet junctions as on a diamond. Moissanite, in its natural form, is usually too small to be cut into gemstones and is very dark in color usually dark green. The labs that grow synthetic moissanite have been able to lighten the color to be closer to the near colorless range and faceted to look much like a shallow cut diamond.

Some other diamond simulants are White Sapphire, GGG, White Zircon, and Glass.

Some things to look for that might tell you that the stone you are looking at is not a diamond.

• Curved facet junctions.
• The girdle is not smooth it looks pitted and rough.
• The inclusions are brown instead of black
• The inclusions look unusual.
• The stone doesn't "sparkle" like a diamond.
• The color is unusual.