50 free Jewelry trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
48 free Jewelry trivia questions with answers. Jewelry is where geology, chemistry, royalty and marketing meet. This quiz covers all of it: how gem hardness is ranked and which mineral sits where, what a karat and a hallmark actually tell you, why the birthstone list looks the way it does, and the stories behind the world's most famous stones, from the diamond mailed to a museum in a brown-paper box to the one that only queens are allowed to wear. You will also meet the great houses and the people who shaped the trade: the goldsmith who made eggs for the tsars, the New York firm that invented the six-prong ring, the Paris jeweller a king called the jeweller of kings, and the mining cartel whose copywriter turned a diamond into a permanent engagement tradition. It works for a jewellery-lover, a pub-quiz round or anyone who has wondered what 925 stamped inside a ring means. Every answer is checked against Wikipedia's articles on the stones, metals, houses and crown jewels involved, and the source sentence sits under each question.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Mohs hardness scale used for gemstones was introduced in 1812 by a mineralogist of which nationality?
German
Friedrich Mohs ranked ten reference minerals by which could scratch which, and the scale is still the standard shorthand for gem durability.
Q 02Which mineral sits at 1, the softest point, on the Mohs scale?
Talc
It can be scratched with a fingernail; gypsum is 2, calcite 3 and fluorite 4 on the same scale.
Q 03Rubies get their red colour from traces of which element?
Chromium
The same aluminium-oxide mineral with different trace metals gives every other colour of the gem family, including the rare pink-orange padparadscha.
Q 04Which gemstone is the modern birthstone for September?
Sapphire
Peridot belongs to August, opal to October and topaz to November on the same list.
Q 05How many carats does the Hope Diamond weigh?
45.52
Under ultraviolet light the stone glows with an eerie red phosphorescence, one of the traits used to identify it.
Q 06Trace amounts of which element give the Hope Diamond its blue colour?
Boron
Blue diamonds of this type make up only about 0.1% of gem diamonds; nitrogen, by contrast, tints stones yellow.
Q 07To which institution was the Hope Diamond donated in 1958?
The Smithsonian, Washington
It came from the Kollur Mine in India and was sold to Louis XIV in 1668 before the French Revolution scattered the royal jewels; it has been in Washington since 1958.
Q 08Which jeweller first lent jewels to actresses for the 1944 Oscars and later donated the Hope Diamond?
Harry Winston
Jennifer Jones was the first actress he dressed; he owned the blue diamond for a decade before giving it away in 1958.
Q 09Which French traveller bought the rough Hope Diamond in India and sold it to Louis XIV?
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier
After recutting, the stone was known at the French court simply as the French Blue.
Q 10The Cullinan Diamond, the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, weighed how many carats?
3,106
Cutting it produced 9 major stones plus 96 minor brilliants, and took three people eight months at 14 hours a day.
Q 11The Cullinan Diamond was named after what?
The owner of the mine
Thomas Cullinan owned the mine; the stone itself was sent to Britain in a plain box by registered post while a decoy went by ship.
Q 12Cullinan I, the Great Star of Africa, is mounted in which piece of the British regalia?
The Sovereign's Sceptre with Cross
At 530.4 carats it is the largest cut clear diamond in the world; its 317.4-carat sibling Cullinan II sits in the Imperial State Crown.
Q 13What does the name Koh-i-Noor mean?
Mountain of Light
Q 21What was the first Fabergé imperial egg, made in 1885, called?
The Hen Egg
Its plain white enamel shell was just 65 mm across and opened to reveal a golden yolk, then a hen inside that.
Q 22In what year was Tiffany & Co. founded in New York?
1837
The firm began as Tiffany, Young and Ellis at 259 Broadway, and its signature blue was later standardised with Pantone as '1837 Blue'.
Q 23The 1886 Tiffany Setting ring holds the diamond off the band with how many prongs?
Six
Lifting the stone lets light in from all sides, which is why the design became the template for the modern solitaire.
The name is Persian; the stone now weighs 105.6 carats after being recut in the 1850s.
Q 14In 1937 the Koh-i-Noor was set into which piece of British regalia?
The Queen Mother's Crown
It is on public display in the Jewel House at the Tower of London, and India, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan have all demanded its return.
Q 15The 1849 treaty that ceded the Koh-i-Noor to Queen Victoria was signed in which city?
Lahore
It was signed on behalf of the 11-year-old Maharaja Duleep Singh after the Second Anglo-Sikh War.
Q 16An 18-karat gold ring is what percentage gold by mass?
75%
Karat is simply parts out of 24, so 24 karat is pure gold, allowed in trade at a minimum of 99.95%.
Q 17Sterling silver contains what percentage of pure silver?
92.5%
That is why sterling pieces are stamped 925: the number is parts per thousand.
Q 18The word 'hallmark' derives from the London headquarters of which guild?
The Goldsmiths' Company
The date-letter system that lets collectors pin down a piece's year was introduced there in 1478.
Q 19The 1300 English statute that began hallmarking required silver to be marked with which animal's head?
A leopard
The mark still identifies the London assay office today; the sterling standard the statute enforced was 92.5% silver.
Q 20Which symbol is the assay office mark for Birmingham on British hallmarks?
An anchor
Sheffield uses a Yorkshire rose; the four UK assay offices are London, Birmingham, Sheffield and Edinburgh.
Q 24Which luxury group bought Tiffany & Co. in 2021 for about $15.8 billion?
LVMH
The same group had bought Bulgari in 2011.
Q 25Which king called Cartier 'the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers'?
Edward VII
The house was founded in Paris in 1847 by Louis-François Cartier and is now part of the Swiss Richemont group.
Q 26Cartier designed its first flat wristwatch in 1904 for which pioneering aviator?
Alberto Santos-Dumont
He had complained that a pocket watch was useless while flying; the resulting square-bezel watch still bears his name.
Q 27Which copywriter coined the slogan 'A Diamond Is Forever' for De Beers in 1947?
Frances Gerety
She worked for the agency N. W. Ayer & Son, and the line went on to be named the slogan of the century.
Q 28The first well-documented diamond engagement ring was given in 1477 by which archduke?
Maximilian of Austria
He was betrothed to Mary of Burgundy at the imperial court in Vienna.
Q 29On an Irish Claddagh ring, what does the crown symbolise?
Loyalty
The two clasped hands stand for friendship, and how the ring is worn signals whether the wearer is single, attached, engaged or married.
Q 30The Black Prince's Ruby in the Imperial State Crown is not a ruby at all but what?
A spinel
The crown also carries 2,868 diamonds, 273 pearls, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds and 5 actual rubies.