Line #19 Main/AllNaturalGemPolish


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7	%% This trope is about naturally occurring cut/faceted/polished gems. Please don't add examples
8	%% about artificially created gems (like Superman crushing coal into a diamond) being
9	%% cut/faceted/polished.
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11	%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1372233793072834700
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14	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/snow_white_gems_8786.png]]]]
15	[[caption-width-right:350:Look at that! An entire cave full of wedding rings!]]
16
17	->''"In a mine, where a million diamonds shine!"''
18	--> -- ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs''
19
20	In real life, gem appraising, cutting, polishing, faceting, etc. is a multibillion dollar industry, and both a precise science and a work of art. Not so in fiction. [[TreasureIsBiggerInFiction Not only are they much bigger]], they're just naturally flawlessly cut and perfectly shiny, even while they're still in the ground, or where there's no logical way they could have been cut. Characters will find these gems studding the walls of a mine, lying close to the surface, or lying casually in open fields. Bonus points if there's also clumps of different types of gem. Any place where they're abundant is usually a CityOfGold.
21
22	While tumbled pebble gems may look "polished," and really good mineral samples can have well-formed crystals, most of the ones commonly considered very valuable (diamonds, emeralds, sapphires and rubies) do require quite a bit of work to be presentable. In the rough, they look like all other dirty, randomly shaped rocks, so much as to be passed over as such by the untrained eye. The common gem shapes seen in jewelry stores aren't naturally present in any gem. The circular diamond with a pointed bottom, rectangular emerald, and perfectly rounded opal were designed that way to best showcase the gem (for instance, the "brilliant" cut for diamonds maximizes their sparkle by angling reflected light back through the top of the stone).
23
24	SubTrope to ArtisticLicenseGeology. Related to the RuleOfPerception (as many viewers would be unable to identify uncut gems as such without being explicitly told what they are) and ColorCodedStones (when stones are only distinguishable from each other by explicit colors) and could lead to RealityIsUnrealistic. Compare with GoldIsYellow, when golden objects are colored unusually bright yellow, and IceCrystals, when ice is represented with similar crystal shapes, naturally-ocurring or otherwise. Not related to AllNaturalSnakeOil. See also AllThatGlitters.
25
26	----
27
28	!!Examples:
29
30	[[foldercontrol]]
31
32	[[folder:Comic Books ]]
33	* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': The Mole Man discovered an entire valley of [[TreasureIsBiggerInFiction giant diamonds]], all perfectly exposed spires. They're so brilliantly cut the light [[GlowingGem they apparently generate underground]] blinded him, something he inflicts as punishment on unwelcome trespassers (read: everyone from the surface).
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
37	%% * This occurs in ''WesternAnimation/HappilyNeverAfter''.
38	* In ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', the dwarves' mine has a huge variety of fist-sized gems in its walls that are all already perfectly cut and glittering like stars. Doc's evaluations aren't even really about their carats, but whether they "sound" good via tapping them.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
42	* In ''Film/{{Congo}}'', the diamonds in the ancient mine are already sufficiently well cut that one can be plugged straight into a commercial laser for ''huge'' power boost.
43	* ''Film/JurassicPark1993'' has someone pull amber out of a mine, and it is shiny already. All the miners did was grind off some of the rock in which the amber was encased.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Literature]]
47	* Creator/LloydAlexander's ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain'' novel ''The High King''. While going through a Fair Folk mine tunnel, Glew finds a large number of uncut gems that are sparkling, glinting and glittering. (Homage is paid to the trope though: Doli comments that those stones are really worthless, and even the work of a jeweler wouldn't improve them much.)
48	* In Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/StormOverWarlock'', Shan and Thorvald find cut and polished green crystals embedded in the cave as they flee through it. However, though the stones ''might'' have been worth a fortune, they hurry on, since they are fleeing for their lives.
49	* In Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/TheZeroStone'', the Guild ship's landing brings up cut and polished crystals that Jern can see at a glance, though he can't tell their worth.
50	* In the ''Franchise/DoctorWho'' [[Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]]''Literature/NewSeriesAdventures'' novel ''Diamond Dogs'', the diamonds that form in Saturn's atmosphere are ''said'' to be uncut when they get hauled up, but at the same time Bill instantly recognises them as being diamonds. The cover shows a rain of shiny, faceted stones.
51	* In ''Literature/TheVoyageOfAlice'', the diamond turtle's shell is made of cut and polished gemstones. [[spoiler:It may, of course, have something to do with the fact this specimen is a robot, but, according to Professor Seleznyov, diamond turtles really are like this]].
52	* ''Literature/ItsKirbyTime'': In Kirby's Tiny World, Kirby and his friends find shiny rocks in various shapes, including stars and various gem cuts.
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	[[folder:Live-Action TV ]]
56	* In ''Series/{{Outcasts}}'', Carpathia's seas wash up bucketfuls of cut diamonds.
57	[[/folder]]
58
59	[[folder:Music]]
60	* In Wind Rose's cover of ''[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/LetsPlay/Yogscast Diggy Diggy Hole]]'', the dwarven miners find several massive gems immaculately cut and polished buried in the ground.
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Pinball ]]
64	* The diamonds in ''Pinball/{{Congo}}'' are all shown shining brightly despite being raw and unmined; most of them are even pre-cut.
65	[[/folder]]
66
67	[[folder:Tabletop Games ]]
68	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''
69	** TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms setting
70	*** Supplement ''Volo's Guide to the Dalelands''. The Sparking Stones caverns in Archendale have thousands of glittering natural gems embedded in their walls, including "emeralds as big as grapefruit".
71	*** ''Magazine/{{Polyhedron}}'' magazine #115 article "Elminster's Everwinking Eye". Near the town of Beldargan is the Lost Mine of Hollowhill. In its walls are embedded a king's ransom of glistening, uncut sapphires.
72	** ''Dark and Hidden Ways'' supplement. In a lost dwarven gem mine, the "Hall of Gems" is a cave whose walls are covered with rough, uncut jewels that magnificently glitter and sparkle.
73	** Judges Guild supplement ''Glory Hole Dwarven Mine''
74	*** In one tunnel, an outcropping of star rose quartz glitters as though it has been polished in whatever light the PlayerCharacters are using.
75	*** The walls of Myreatog's lair are covered with quartz, jacinths, garnets and diamonds that glitter as if polished.
76	*** The walls of two caves holding Myreatog's minions have brilliantly glittering red and violet garnets, smoky quartz, diamonds, star rose quartz, jacinths and rock crystals.
77	*** One cave holding some of Myreatog's minions has brilliantly glittering jacinths and diamonds in its walls.
78	* Gamelords Ltd. supplement ''Thieves' Guild 8'', adventure "Rescue from the Trolls' Hole". In the Great Room of the Gods, the walls of the cave are covered with natural crystals whose facets sparkle and twinkle in the light.
79	* Midkemia Press's ''Heart of the Sunken Lands''. In The Pit, the Old Hidden Chapel has hundreds of raw gems embedded in its walls that glint in the light.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Video Games ]]
83	* In ''VideoGame/BurritoBisonLaunchaLibre'', when activating Dr. Wormageddon, the gems found underground are already cut and polished.
84	* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
85	** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' contains diamond veins which look like elongated, beautiful bluish-white crystals poking out of a boulder. You can take cut diamonds from them.
86	** With the addition of mining for ores, ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' allows the player to also occasionally find precious gems. Most of the time this trope is averted, with the gems being rough and flawed, but occasionally, the [[PlayerCharacter Dovakhiin]] can dig up a perfectly flawless, pre-cut gemstone. Out of an iron vein.
87	* In ''VideoGame/{{EverQuest}}'', mines feature naturally cut and polished gems.
88	* ''VideoGame/FossilFighters'': All jewels are well-cut and shiny, even if taken directly from a jewel rock.
89	* ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'': Any jewel or precious stone mined in the series. Curiously, precious metals do not come already in bar form.
90	* ''VideoGame/JazzJackrabbit'' has enormous pre-cut gems inside the ground, too.
91	* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing''
92	** During the 2011 [[YouMeanXmas Crimbo]] event, players could mine at the Gummi Mines, carving out rock candy that was [[LampshadeHanging "already in convenient ingot form"]].
93	** Its three other existing mines also sometimes have stones of [=eXtreme=] power or lumps of (cut) diamond in them, but considering they include ores like cardboard, linoleum or velcro, expecting gems to be cut is the natural thing to do.
94	* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfKyrandia'', gems are naturally cut and polished.
95	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': You can mine ore deposits by simply smashing them to pieces with certain tools or blowing them up with bombs. This can yield gemstones, which appear as perfectly-formed, brightly colored crystals despite both the violent method of their extraction and their coming from inside large, flint-like nodules. Specifically, ambers are smoothly rounded orange shapes, diamonds clear crystalline spears that resemble quartz more than anything else, opals are roughly-shaped but otherwise still many-colored, sparkly and well-polished, rubies are deep red faceted crystals, sapphires are similarly shaped and deep blue, and topazes bright yellow cubes.
96	* In ''VideoGame/MegaMan9'', Jewel Man's stage has enormous pre-cut gems inside the ground.
97	* In ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', while some materials, such as iron and gold, have to be mined as unrefined ore chunks and then smelted into usable forms, diamonds and emeralds pop out of the wall as the aforementioned symmetrical, visibly faceted lumps.
98	* ''VideoGame/MinecraftDungeons'': Every emerald you find is of the same perfectly cut and shiny variety.
99	* ''{{VideoGame/Pharaoh}}'': Raw gems from mines appear as great big diamonds, but need to be taken to jewelers to be made into the more expensive Luxury Goods.
100	* ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'': Almost all of the games involve a quest in which the heroes go into a sparkling gem cave.
101	* In ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'', gems mined from rocks are as much polished as ones found in treasure chests or on the ground.
102	* ''Franchise/SpyroTheDragon'': {{Justified\|Trope}}, as almost all of the places Spyro visits covet Gems and use them as a currency ([[FollowTheMoney despite their often being found on the ground]]), and a big deal is made of several villains having a large collection of them, so it makes sense that they'd be given cuts already. Played straight however with Glimmer in ''VideoGame/Spyro2RiptosRage'', which has pre-cut Gems sticking out of the ground.
103	* ''VideoGame/StardewValley'': Played straight. Breaking rocks in the mines finds you perfectly cut and polished emeralds, rubies, and diamonds, and a few minerals including quartz can be found, also polished, just lying on the ground.
104	* In ''VideoGame/SwordOfChaos'', gems grow in mines naturally cut and polished.
105	* The third (mining) level of the dungeon in ''VideoGame/TempleOfApshai''
106	** In one room, an uncut emerald can be seen gleaming while still embedded in a wall.
107	** In another room, two raw uncut gems (an emerald and a diamond) lying in the dirt gleam in the light.
108	* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': Played with. Gems meant for SocketedEquipment have to be cut by someone with the Jewelcrafting skill to be used (with the type of cut determining the type of bonus). On the other hand, many caverns have [[TreasureIsBiggerInFiction giant glowing crystals sticking out of the walls]], and "simple" gems useful only as [[ItemCrafting crafting ingredients]] or ShopFodder often look like they're ready to wear when you mine them (e.g., the [[http://www.wowhead.com/item=12800/azerothian-diamond Azerothian Diamond]]).
109	[[/folder]]
110
111	[[folder:Webcomics ]]
112	* ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'' justifies naturally occurring cut/polished gems since it takes place in a {{tabletop game\|s}} world and explicitly [[RPGMechanicsVerse doesn't follow real life physics]].
113	[[/folder]]
114
115	[[folder:Western Animation ]]
116	* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': The gems Rarity finds -- [[EatDirtCheap and Spike eats]] -- are already cut in various shapes, appearing in the show as either clusters of small, faceted gems buried together in the dirt or as enormous, near-flawless crystals sticking straight out from cave walls like crystalline mushrooms. Even the turquoise Spike eats in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E21OverABarrel Over a Barrel]]," while not cut into faceted shapes, appears as polished nuggets, which is not typical of turquoise found in real life.
117	* On ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', the mine run by a crazy Jane Goodall using enslaved apes in Africa has naturally cut and polished diamonds.
118	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'': In the 1973/74 episode "The Mysterious Moles", the natural gems in the underground area Molesville are all faceted and shining.
119	* ''WesternAnimation/Ducktales1987'': In "Marking Time" Scrooge buys an island, and his nephews question why. Scrooge answers by tapping a particularly large rock (which was just lying around for some reason), and it collapses, revealing it was just a black crust surrounding a perfectly cut diamond, so large Scrooge can lean on it.
120	* Used in ''WesternAnimation/PartyWagon'', when the protagonists find the Lost Mine of El Glitterado. [[spoiler:This turns out to be a subversion when one of the characters points out that the gems are already mined, cut, and polished, indicating that they were placed there beforehand. It turns out the "mine" is actually an outlaw hideout, and all the gems were stolen.]]
121	[[/folder]]
122
123	[[folder:Real Life]]
124	* No really, some crystals naturally ''do'' form gorgeous flat shiny facets in nature, just look at the inside of any geode. In fact for most of the human history involving diamonds, cutting or polishing a diamond was considered a sacrilege, a foolish boast by a human being who thought he could polish as well and perfectly as nature did.
125	* Gemstones that form inside what are called pegmatites really do this. The nature of a pegmatite is a pocket where lava flowed up towards the surface, but then subsided before actually reaching the surface, leaving a hole typically chock-full of rare elements from the lava. The elements then grow into crystals, which, since they are inside a hollow, have nothing to impede their formation and take on large naturally faceted shapes. Quartz in many varieties, topaz, and tourmaline all form inside pegmatites this way. Geodes are essentially really tiny pegmatites while large ones are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
126	* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Crystals Cave of the Crystals]] complex in Mexico's Naica Mine {{exaggerate\|dTrope}}s this trope, with its incredible gigantic selenite crystal spires many metres long already being perfectly formed, thanks to the cave that holds them spending millions of years bathed in mineral-rich water heated by geothermal activity. Here, you'd be hard-pressed to find an area of rock that ''isn't'' [[CrystalLandscape covered in selenite]]; even the smaller crystals can be as big as your head or as long as your arm. A variety of different types have been found in the complex, ranging from 'floaters' that look like miniature mountains, to thin and elongated crystals found in the connected Cave of The Swords, to the iconic spires in the complex's main cavern. After the cave was drained, the area remained a very hostile place, as a temperature of 58°C and humidity levels approaching 100% in the caverns made exploring extremely difficult and risky, with scientists only able to venture into the cave for around half an hour at a time with breathing equipment. At least one miner [[CruelAndUnusualDeath drowned from fluid condensing in his lungs]]. As the cave has been allowed to re-flood, the process that allows the crystals to grow has resumed, meaning they'll only get larger and more magnificent over time. As an amusing aside, since these crystals were found within an actual mine - albeit accidentally, since mining activity at Naica was primarily for the extraction of lead, silver and zinc - the Cave of the Crystals resembles this trope even more!
127	* Diamonds will naturally take on one of three shapes: an octahedron, a cube, or (rarely) a dodecahedron. Octahedrons are often well-formed and clear, and good specimens that naturally facet themselves are called "glassies" and highly sought by collectors.
128	* Garnets naturally form polished dodecahedrons, but as garnets aren't super-hard and form under great pressure, the edges tend to get worn.
129	* Rubies and sapphires have a natural triangular structure, but due to cyclic twinning rubies typically form nice faceted hexagonal prisms, while sapphires take the shape of long spindled double-pyramids with six sides.
130	* Though too soft for most jewelry purposes, fluorite is dearly loved by collectors because it naturally forms extremely exact cubes often combining many colors into one specimen.
131	* Calcite has more possible crystal habits than almost any other gem and can come in all sorts of natural gem-polish shapes.
132	* Ultimately almost every single gemstone (aside from a few aggregate types like malachite, opal, and jade) can do this. If the gem comes in a crystal-clear variety (aggregates are usually translucent to opaque), odds are it will form perfect shapes at least once in a while. Specimens that do so in particularly good formations are usually too valuable to cut and are kept in their natural state by collectors.
133	** Still, the shapes most people are familiar with are not the natural crystalline forms of any of the stones. So even if you do come across a naturally polished specimen, it's probably [[RealityIsUnrealistic not going to look like what you think it will.]]
134	* Herkimer "diamonds" are a form of naturally occurring, double-terminated faceted quartz that really do resemble cartoon gem mining, and even often appear singly in the rough brown dolostone they occur in.
135	* This was part of how the semi-famous 'Diamond Hoax of 1872' was revealed: geologist Clarence King, while surveying the supposed 'motherlode' noted, among other factors, that all the gems planted by the con men Arnold and Slack had been cut and polished.
136	[[/folder]]
137
138	!!Aversions
139
140	[[folder:Anime and Manga ]]
141	* When Lina is going through her loot after raiding a bandit hideout in the first season of ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'', she notes that a large number of the gems are flawed and not worth much. She then enchants them into protection amulets so that she can sell them for more.
142	* In ''Manga/LandOfTheLustrous'', the Gems weren't born as shiny and perfectly cut as they would later be in life. As shown with Red Diamond, they were jagged, rough, and dull. It wasn't until Kongou cut and polished them into humanoid shapes that they started to look presentable.
143	[[/folder]]
144
145	[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]
146	* When discovered in ''Film/OutOfSight'', the plot-related uncut diamonds are mentioned to look like rocks. Jack Foley has a EurekaMoment when he realizes the diamonds aren't hidden in the safe, [[spoiler:but [[HiddenInPlainSight in plain sight]] at the bottom of the fish tank.]]
147	* The rubies shown in ''Film/TheManWhoWouldBeKing'' are rough and uncut.
148	* ''Film/UncutGems'', as the title suggests, revolves around an giant black opal that is uncut. It contains a few "windows" of sparkling color, but otherwise looks like a lump of grey rock.
149	* The titular diamond of ''Film/BloodDiamond'' is seen to resemble a rock, and is covered in dirt and grime when first uncovered.
150	[[/folder]]
151
152	[[folder:Literature]]
153	* ''Literature/PhulesCompany'' had a Lampshaded aversion. Phule's dialogue with the local gemstone magnate goes like this:
154	-->'''Charlie:''' In fact, I've got 'em with me if you'd like to see. (shows a handful of pebbles)\
155	'''Phule:''' Uh... Very nice.\
156	'''Charlie:''' (shows his ring) ...This is what they end up lookin' like.\
157	'''Phule:''' (really meaning it this time) ''Very'' nice.
158	* In ''Literature/ThePhantomTollbooth'' the Numbers Mine is of the ordinary sort. Carts of rough stone are being pushed around, and men are explicitly sitting at buffing wheels on site. The Mathemagician has to reach into their carts to get polished stones. The weird thing is that the residents of Digitopolis [[WorthlessYellowRocks consider diamonds, emeralds, etc. to be worthless]], yet they ''still'' polish and cut them before tossing them out.
159	* In the second ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'', Mulch Diggums uses dwarfish rock polish to melt a window to break into a home; he pauses in his internal monologue to mock humans as he does so, for ''cutting'' gems to make them presentable, which he considers to be a waste of gemstone.
160	* A good portion of ''Literature/{{Airman}}'' takes place at a prison where the prisoners mine diamonds. At one point, a guard frustrated at being unable to stop a supposed boogeyman starts chucking uncut diamonds into the sea, thinking they're just rocks. A smarter guard notices them for what they are, and realizes [[spoiler:the "boogeyman" is actually part of a heist.]]
161	* In ''Literature/TheTwentyOneBalloons'', the diamond mine of Krakatoa is explicitly stated to have the diamonds as lumpy rocks. The founder of the island has to shatter one of them into planes to form an axe blade.
162	* In ''Literature/KingSolomonsMines'' the cache of diamonds is composed of uncut and rough-cut stones, the largest of which are badly flawed and/or off-colour.
163	* The chasmfiend gemhearts in ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' are specifically noted to be uncut. This is an important plot point, as cut gems hold [[{{Mana}} Stormlight]] better. No one knows why.
164	* While observing Uloiho the goldsmith's "[[TreasureRoom gem room]],"[[note]]A treasury made to simulate a jewel mine, basically a master's showroom.[[/note]] [[Literature/TheWolfhound Wolfhound]] notes for himself that while the room layout and its contents are geologically accurate, the RealLife mines and jewels don't looks even a tiniest bit [[ThemeParkVersion that tidy and polished]].
165	* Inverted in the Literature/SherlockHolmes short story ''The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual''. The sack containing apparently worthless broken bits of metal and colored stones [[spoiler:turns out to be the lost crown of Charles I, priceless for its historical value alone.]]
166	* Inverted in the Creator/AgathaChristie ''Literature/HerculePoirot'' novel ''Literature/HerculePoirotsChristmas''. The murderer has stolen a fortune in diamonds and hidden them somewhere on the estate, but no one can find them. Poirot realises [[spoiler:that the diamonds were uncut, and thus just look like pebbles to a bystander, allowing the murderer to hide them in plain sight in a plant pot]].
167	* In Agatha Christie's novel ''Literature/TheManInTheBrownSuit'', the heroine Anne and her friend find some uncut diamonds in a film canister. Not recognizing them, Anne thinks they're pebbles until her friend tells her otherwise.
168	[[/folder]]
169
170	[[folder:Live-Action TV ]]
171	* In the ''Series/NewTricks'' episode "Diamond Geezers," the reason that the diamond at the centre of the episode has lain undiscovered in a flat in East London for decades relates to the fact that the flat's owner, a jewelsmith, was too nervous to cut it; it looks just like a large red gem and most people treat it as such (though a jeweler's assistant does identify it as a diamond after a quick look.) Does kind of count as TreasureIsBiggerInFiction, though, as it's about walnut sized and ''red''.
172	* In the ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' episode "The Leviathan," Holmes notices that some of the stones are missing from a coffee-table decoration comprising glass tubes of different-coloured gravel, and deduces that this is where the uncut gems were hidden.
173	* In an episode of the ITV version of Sherlock Holmes, a court case where Sherlock is being framed relies on him having taken some diamonds. The witness confirms that she saw the gems before they were stolen and describes them as beautiful and shiny. Sherlock is able to prove she is lying as the gems were uncut and looked like ordinary, dull stones.
174	* In the ''Series/{{Relic Hunter}}'' episode "Afterlife and Death", a diamond from 1500 B.C. has an irregular shape and the fact that it has to be cut and polished now to be considered beautiful plays a big part in the plot.
175	[[/folder]]
176
177	[[folder:Myth]]
178	* The heshibi, also known as Mr. He's Jade, is a story about a man familiar with gemstones who found a massive rock and brought it as a gift to the king. The king's jeweler appraised it and said it was just a rock, so the man had his foot cut off. When the king died, the man returned with the stone to the next king, but the king's jeweler said the same thing and the man's other foot was cut off. When ''that'' king died, another took his place and heard that the man was off in the mountains and had been weeping constantly while holding his stone. He sent a man to ask why he wept so bitterly when many other men had lost their feet, only for the man to reply that he wept not for his feet but because a precious piece of jade was called a worthless rock and an honest man was called a liar. The stone was finally brought back, cut and polished into a massive beautiful jade, which was cut into a ''bi''. Notably, this story was seemingly later attached to a genuine imperial treasure of China, though the jade ''bi'' itself was lost a thousand years ago.
179	[[/folder]]
180
181	[[folder:Video Games ]]
182	* In ''VideoGame/{{Arcanum}}'', not only all the gems are either found in chests or obviously dropped on the floor by somebody, but there are rough jewels, which look like misshapen shards of coloured glass and, of course, cost less.
183	* ''Videogame/DeepRockGalactic:'' All the ores you find are utterly raw, and every gem you find in one piece looks amorphous and unclear, visibly needing some cutting and polishing to work properly, if it's not simply being broken apart for whatever it is DRG wants to do with them. Doesn't stop them from being glimmering and even glowy even if in a dulled, unpolished way. The only exception to this are the perfectly spherical Enor Pearls, which are ''probably'' not real pearls since there's no bivalves to be found. It's anyone's guess why they always found in utterly spherical shapes (though it bears mentioning Hoxxes IV geology [[ArtisticLicenseGeology already makes zero sense as is]]).
184	* ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}''
185	** ''VideoGame/DiabloII''[='s=] [[SocketedEquipment socketed items]] can be fitted with gems of many grades, the lowest being Chipped and the highest being Perfect. The game also has the refining process present in the Horadric Cube.
186	** This trend continued in ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'', where the icons for lower quality gems are jagged and murky-colored compared to higher quality examples.
187	* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'': The dwarves mine out rough gems that need to be cut before they're usable. The later versions even have different kinds of cuts, depending on the type of gem.
188	* ''VideoGame/FarCry2'': Blood diamonds are the main currency in the game, and are uncut in both your paychecks and when found in the environment. You can sell them as is to arms dealers in exchange for gun shipments[[note]]This gives you permission to take a mint-condition gun from the shipment you purchased from any arms dealer at any time, for the rest of the game.[[/note]].
189	* In both ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' mining only produces unpolished stones, which must be crafted with Goldsmith skill to turn them into actual gems.
190	* In ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon: Animal Parade,'' as well as the previous entry in the series ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon: Tree of Tranquility'' you find uncut "Wonderfuls" of various colors in the mine. They're next to worthless unless you have Mira cut and refine them, and she has a good chance of failing, too, meaning you'll want to mine a lot if you want to find all the good gems.
191	* ''VideoGame/{{Hexen}} II'': Gems that the player collects have to be cut before they can be used to power the [[BuffySpeak big zodiac wheel thingy]].
192	* In ''VideoGame/NancyDrew: The Secret of Shadow Ranch'', getting an agate properly polished is actually necessary to obtain a clue.
193	* VideoGame/RFOnline allows the player to obtain various gems through processing unrefined ore, with different tiers of ore resulting in different qualities of gem. However, a player can literally go through hundreds of ores before receiving any gems (however given that a player can haul in a few thousand at a time, this is usually not an issue).
194	* In the flash game ''Ravenwood Fair'', gems fresh from the mine are uncut and lumpy. A machine to cut and polish them must be obtained by completing challenges.
195	* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'': Mined gems are uncut. In order to use them in jewelery, the Crafting skill is required to cut them first. It also gets into the realistic zone in that the gems don't just lie on the ground but have to be mined -- and in that certain gems are found with certain ores.
196	* ''VideoGame/TheSims3'' includes rough gems (and unrefined ore) scattered around the town that sims can pick up and send away to be cut into numerous different designs. Some gems have special properties that can't be used until after they've been cut.
197	* ''Franchise/SpyroTheDragon'' features a lot of gemstones, scattered around the world. However, it's confirmed that this is the stolen and scattered treasure hoards of the dragons, similar to Fort Knox in America. The size can probably be attributed to magic. Interestingly, the most valuable gems, [[PurpleIsPowerful purple]] (worth 25 treasure), appear to be amethyst, staple of any gem collection and a derivative of quartz (which is ''literally'' common as dirt). ''VideoGame/Spyro2RiptosRage'' zig-zags this trope. The first level has massive, perfectly-cut gemstones jutting from the ground, and the native creatures known as the Gemcutters presumably have the job of cutting and processing the giant gems into smaller, usable ones.
198	* ''VideoGame/StoryOfSeasonsPioneersOfOliveTown'', while part of a franchise that usually plays this trope staight, was designed as to have the player find their materials in state close to their natural one. Because of this, it is a rare installment in which gems are mined in a raw form and need to be processed in a maker to obtain the cut form.
199	* In ''A Tale In The Desert'', not only do you have to carefully cut gems yourself, plane by plane, you have to take advantage of inherent flaws to get any concave aspects.
200	* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}:'' Averted. The game features mining in the open world areas, and when mined the gems appear in various rough states that could reasonably occur in nature, including lumpy coloured blobs, rough crystals, and even one geode that extrudes cabochon-like lumps inside itself (Goblite) as well as one 'gem' which looks similar to a bismuth crystal in it's uncut state. Before they can be used you need to have blueprints for your foundry to produce cut and polished stones from the raw minerals.
201	* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has an entire Jewelcrafting profession available in which the player takes raw gemstones and grinds and polishes them into something usable in SocketedEquipment. Jewelcrafting also gives the prospecting skill that allows a player to sacrifice raw metal ore for random gems (that are sometimes more useful and sometimes less useful for ItemCrafting compared to the ore). Raw gems added to the game after the profession was introduced also look unrefined, only gaining clear colors and smooth facets after being cut.
202	* In ''VideoGame/WorldsDawn'', you can dig up stones with varying degrees of shininess, but they're not worth much until you cut them at the table outside the mine.
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204
205	[[folder:Web Original ]]
206	* When a servant of a greater dragon tries to hire [[Literature/TheLayOfPaulTwister Paul Twister]] for a job, he just about freaks out at the sight of the payment offered: a rough blue stone that he recognizes as an uncut sapphire. It's about half as big as an egg, which, [[ShownTheirWork as Paul rightly recognizes,]] makes it [[TreasureIsBiggerInFiction an enormous gemstone.]]
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209	[[folder:Western Animation ]]
210	* ''WesternAnimation/TrollHunters'', the magic gems that Jim collects are large, unwieldy, and look more like rocks than gems. Vendel has to teach Jim how to cut them to unlock their power.
211	[[/folder]]

Context Main / AllNaturalGemPolish