Identity level
Identity level — the 16 controlled values used across 433 bead material entries. Each value that has its own page lists every entry that carries it.
What this axis answers
Identity level answers one question: at which level does this name sit? The scientific identities are species, group, variety, rock or aggregate, natural glass, mineraloid and organic material. Alongside them sit a generic trade-name value and the trade-name subtypes, sorted by what the name borrows: colour or appearance, inclusion or visual effect, geographic origin, cultural or brand designation, material unverified. Outside both blocks are treatment process, artificial product type, and bead-form or specification term. One boundary rule governs the axis: a trade name does not override scientific identity. Use it to check whether a product name already tells you the material, or only where the name came from.
How it differs from the other four axes
What this axis does not decide: whether the material is natural, man-made or undetermined (origin class), which material domain it sits in, its mineral chemical class, or its construction and treatment status. Synthetic ruby reads artificial product type here, artificial product on origin and synthetic product on state.
Two common misreadings
Burma Ruby is a geographic trade name; the material is ruby, origin does not take part in the name, and any origin opinion needs a laboratory report. Angelite is a colour trade name for blue anhydrite, not a gypsum variety.
What it means for disclosure
For labelling, GB/T 16552-2017 clause 5.1.1 c) says a trade name shall not be used on its own and may be annotated in the accompanying quality document; the NOTE to CIBJO Gemstone Book clause 4.2.4 lets the correct mineral name with a colour description substitute for any variety or trade name.
Controlled values on this axis
This table scrolls sideways on narrow screens.
| Value | Definition | Entries | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mineral species | Scientific or material identity level; a trade name does not override scientific identity. | 87 | Has its own page |
| Mineral group / supergroup | Scientific or material identity level; a trade name does not override scientific identity. | 13 | Has its own page |
| Mineral / gemstone variety | Scientific or material identity level; a trade name does not override scientific identity. | 80 | Has its own page |
| Rock / mineral aggregate | Scientific or material identity level; a trade name does not override scientific identity. | 34 | Has its own page |
| Natural glass | Scientific or material identity level; a trade name does not override scientific identity. | 7 | Has its own page |
| Natural amorphous gem material / mineraloid | Scientific or material identity level; a trade name does not override scientific identity. | 3 | Has its own page |
| Organic or biogenic material | Scientific or material identity level; a trade name does not override scientific identity. | 52 | Has its own page |
| Commercial / trade name | Scientific or material identity level; a trade name does not override scientific identity. | 19 | No glossary entries carry this value, so no standalone page is built; the term remains listed in the controlled-vocabulary table. |
| Trade name: colour / appearance variety | Scientific or material identity level; a trade name does not override scientific identity. | 52 | Has its own page |
| Trade name: inclusion / visual-effect descriptor | Scientific or material identity level; a trade name does not override scientific identity. | 11 | Has its own page |
| Trade name: geographic / origin-linked name | Scientific or material identity level; a trade name does not override scientific identity. | 9 | Has its own page |
| Trade name: cultural / brand designation | Scientific or material identity level; a trade name does not override scientific identity. | 4 | Has its own page |
| Trade name: material identity unverified | Scientific or material identity level; a trade name does not override scientific identity. | 10 | Has its own page |
| Treatment process / method | Scientific or material identity level; a trade name does not override scientific identity. | 0 | No glossary entries carry this value, so no standalone page is built; the term remains listed in the controlled-vocabulary table. |
| Artificial product type | Scientific or material identity level; a trade name does not override scientific identity. | 49 | Has its own page |
| Shape / bead-form / specification term | Scientific or material identity level; a trade name does not override scientific identity. | 3 | Has its own page |
CIBJO definitions
- Crystal
a crystalline (5.20) solid that consists of orderly arranged atoms, ions and/or molecules, bounded by natural plane surfaces with characteristic, specific orientations. Also see lead glass clause 5.50.
CIBJO Blue Book — Official Gemstone Book (Coloured Stone Commission 2022) (CIBJO): §5.19, p.22
- Crystalline / crystallised
having crystal structure. A solid material consisting of orderly arranged atoms, ions and or molecules, forming a crystal lattice.
CIBJO Blue Book — Official Gemstone Book (Coloured Stone Commission 2022) (CIBJO): §5.20, p.22
- Glass
an amorphous substance, natural or artificial, solidified from a molten state, ordinarily consisting of a mixture of oxides (e.g. silicon, sodium, calcium, aluminium and lead oxides).
CIBJO Blue Book — Official Gemstone Book (Coloured Stone Commission 2022) (CIBJO): §5.40, p.24
- Mineral
a mineral is an element or chemical compound that is normally crystalline and that has been formed as a result of geological processes. (From the definition of a mineral, E.H. Nickel, Canadian Mineralogist, Vol. 33 the full reference is given in clause 2 “Normative references”.).
CIBJO Blue Book — Official Gemstone Book (Coloured Stone Commission 2022) (CIBJO): §5.52, p.25
- Rock
a natural solid aggregate of minerals.
CIBJO Blue Book — Official Gemstone Book (Coloured Stone Commission 2022) (CIBJO): §5.71, p.27
Definitions are quoted verbatim from the cited CIBJO Blue Book; […] marks an excerpt, and the full definition is at the cited clause.