It is hard to imagine that a mineral using a name as mundane as corundum yields gems as exquisite as the ruby and sapphire, or even that these two stones, so different in color and mystique, are truly the same mineral family.
Lucky you if your birthstone is sapphire (September) or ruby (July). These are among the richest-colored of all gemstones having a romance and history as colorful as they’re. Rubies are truly rarer than sapphires, and only red corundums are known as rubies. Any other color is usually a sapphire. When grading colored stones, the density and hue of the color are part from the evaluation, and it is the richest, deepest colors which are the most prized.
In rubies, one of the most prized variant of color is known as pigeon’s blood. Big gem quality rubies can be a lot more valuable than comparably sized diamonds and are certainly rarer. There is a relative abundance of smaller, (1-3 carat,) blue sapphires compared towards the scarcity of even little gem quality rubies, making even these smaller stones fairly higher in value.
Stones of Burmese origin usually command the highest costs. The vast majority of rubies are “native cut” in the country of origin. Higher value ruby rough is tightly controlled and rarely makes its method to custom cutters. Occasionally, such native stones are recut to custom proportions, albeit at a loss of weight and diameter. Custom cut and recut stones are generally much more per carat.
Sapphires exist in all the shades of blue from the deep blue of evening skies for the bright and deep blue of a clear and beautiful summer sky. Sapphires also come in quite a few other colors, not only in the transparent grayish misty blue of far horizons, but also displaying the bright fireworks of sunset colors – yellow, pink, orange and purple.
So sapphires are genuinely and truly heavenly stones, although they’re being discovered within the challenging soil of our so-called “blue planet”.
Alisa Haeften manages site and an author of
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