Humans like shiny things, so much so that English has expressions like "all that glitters is not gold" to remind us that those shiny things may not be valuable. I'm sure other languages have an equivalent expression. So it really shouldn't be a surprise that we have a lot of lore and legends surrounding the various gemstones.
Most legends about gems tend to be positive and focus on their healing or protective aspects. Claude Lecouteux notes in his lapidary of sacred stones that "A statistical analysis of the specific powers of stones reveals that these are unevenly distributed between two poles, one consisting of purely magical properties (5%) or protective properties (30%), and the other of therapeutic properties (65%)"1(the Hope Diamond is a notable exception. It is said to be cursed, though this has been thought to be a marketing campaign for publicity rather than an actual legend).
These purported powers are pulled from the gem by various methods, including engraving certain symbols, ingesting, touching/wearing, or seeing. Stones could also be used as part of other spells/charms/rituals, though it's debatable whether this was thought to be a property of the stone or the result of combination with a plant/herb/oil/etc.
Gem lore as a concept spans across cultures, though no gem seems to have the same property in all cultures. A myriad of properties are attributed to a given stone and Lecouteux notes that "A stone never possesses only a single virtue. As the centuries go by and traditions from other lands are discovered, the number of its properties continues to grow."2
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1. Lecouteux, Claude. A Lapidary of Sacred Stones: Their Magical and Medicinal Powers Based on the Earliest Sources (pp. 9-10). Inner Traditions/Bear & Company. Kindle Edition.
2. Lecouteux, Claude. A Lapidary of Sacred Stones: Their Magical and Medicinal Powers Based on the Earliest Sources (p. 13). Inner Traditions/Bear & Company. Kindle Edition.
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