Where Does Your Jewelry Come From?

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Jewelry can often go through quite a journey before it reaches the end consumer. Certain precious metals and gems may not always come from the most ethical sources, which is why it’s important to know where your jewelry comes from. By being careful as to where you buy your jewelry, you can ensure that you’re not fuelling cruel, unfair or environmentally-unfriendly practices. This post explains more.

Why the source matters

It’s possible that when buying jewelry, you could be potentially supporting unethical practices. A few examples of such practices include:

• Fake gold/silver/diamonds

• Stolen jewelry

• Mines with child labor

• Mines with poor wages and poor working conditions

• ‘Blood diamonds’ - diamonds sold to fund war efforts

• Environmentally-unfriendly mining (such as using diesel and dynamite)

By knowing the source, you can avoid supporting these practices, allowing you to make a more guilt-free purchase. Exclusively choosing jewelry from ethical sources reduces the demand on jewelry from unethical sources, helping to discourage these practices.

The source can also impact the quality in many cases. Poor quality mines are more likely to produce poor quality metals and diamonds. Knowing the source can also reduce the risk of buying fake jewelry. 

WIth historic jewelry, knowing the source can also be important for determining its value. Certain heirloom jewelry made during certain periods could be very valuable without you even realising. 

How to trace jewelry to its origin

Jewelry can be traced back to its origin by looking for stamps and hallmarks. Other tests can also be used to assess the metals used. An expert jeweler may be able to help you with this task.

Hallmarks like Canadamark are often seen as trusted as they show that a diamond has been mined in one of Canada’s dominion mines and that it therefore meets ethical standards. Other countries have similar hallmarks that are used to identify ethical practices.

Where to buy ethically-sourced jewelry

If you want to avoid buying unethical jewelry, it’s important that you shop at a trusted jeweler. The likes of Brilliant Earth are committed to making sure that all metals and diamonds used in their jewelry come from ethical sources. This includes practices such as using recycled metals, using lab-grown diamonds or using gold from Fairmined gold mines.

You can find such jewelers online. Local jewelers may not always ethically source their jeweler, although some do care about this. 

Red flags to look out for when buying jewelry

To ensure that your jewelry comes from a good source, it’s worth looking out for a few red flags. A few signs that you probably shouldn’t buy an item of jewelry include:

• Bad online customer reviews of the seller

• No hallmarks on jewelry

• No certification

• Lack of information about the source

• Unusually low pricing (while it’s possible you may have found a good deal, it’s also possible that it could be fake or stolen)