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Tune in and find out what the original birthstones were and which ones were changed! Dig into the past and figure out the history of birthstones!

Discover and learn about some of the most bizarre jewelry selling for extraordinary prices. Watch as records are shattered in absurdly expensive purchases.

Read about the differences between zircon and cubic zirconia, including how these gems look the same but have very different properties.

Akoya pearls are the classic, original and some would say, the most beautiful cultured pearls.

While it was once just a collector's gem, spessartine, an orange variety of garnet, made its move into the mainstream during the 1990s when new deposits were discovered in Africa. Like most garnets, spessartine is typically untreated, so the beautiful color and clarity that you see in them is just as nature created it. Spessartine garnet is named after its first discovery in Spessart, Bavaria, in the mid 1800's.

Spectrolite is the tradename for the phenomenal labradorite variety from Finland. Spectrolite is known for its colorful and striking iridescence that shows blue, green, yellow, orange, and red colors. The colors are often compared to the northern lights seen in the Finnish night sky. Depending on the account, Spectrolite was discovered in either the winter of 1939-1940 or 1941 when Finland was building border fortifications during the Finnish-Russian campaign in WWII. Spectrolite mining started after the war. In 1973 a workshop was established in the Ylämaa area, Lappeenranta, South Karelia, Finland for cutting and polishing the gemstone.

Highly coveted South Sea pearls are often described as the pinnacle of cultured pearls--they're certainly among the most rare and expensive available. Primarily farmed in the pristine waters off Australia, the Philippines, and Indonesia, South Sea pearls are generally much larger than other pearl types, ranging from nine to 20 millimeters, and have a unique luster due to their nacre coating. As there are two varieties of this oyster, a gold-lipped and silver-lipped, pearls can be both white to silver and golden.

Pietersite is a striking variety of chalcedony that comes primarily from Namibia and, more recently, China. It commonly exhibits various shades of color, ranging from blue to gray and red to yellow and brown. Pietersite displays chatoyancy similar to tiger's eye quartz.

Quartz is the name of a large group of minerals comprised of silicon dioxide. Quartz is the most abundant mineral on the Earth’s surface, and it can be found on all seven continents. It is best known as its gemstone varieties Amethyst, Citrine, and Rock Crystal Quartz. Quartz crystals are distinctive six-sided prisms with six-sided pyramid terminations. Quartz specimens are attractive and sought after as decorative items.