These are always manmade, and never genuine gemstones!
One of the oldest forms of deceit and forgery in the world is that of gemstones. Even in 5000BC, early forms of glass were used to imitate gems. Unfortunately, even today it is common to find manmade items trying to imitate the appearance of real gems.
The good news, however, is that they are normally sold in an ethical manner with the retailer correctly labelling the item as “created”, “synthetic” or “lab grown”. Do be careful though when buying from catalogues or in-flight magazines: be sure to study the terminology correctly. I recently saw an advert stating, “Genuine lab created Alexandrite” and another offering “the stone is 3.5ct Ceylon Blue Sapphire in Colour”. Also be aware of items that have names that sound like gemstones but are not: Moissanite and Cubic Zirconia are two of the main culprits.
Then we have “crystals”. It’s interesting, isn’t it, that genuine gemstones do have a genuine crystal structure, yet nearly all items sold as crystals today are glass, and glass of course being manmade from the heating of sand does not have a crystal structure. For me, the use of the word crystal in relation to imitation gemstones is incredibly misleading.
