The Fiery Red Ruby - The Most Expensive Gemstone of All
The finest, top quality ruby is indeed rare which it continues to be the earth's most valued gemstone for millennia. In fact, right now, flawless excellent rubies are more valuable and rare than excellent colorless diamonds. A 16 carat ruby sold at auction for US$227,301 per carat at Sotheby's in 1988. A 27.37 carat Burmese ruby ring sold for US$4 million at Sotheby's in Geneva in May 1995, or $146,145 per carat. A 32 carat ruby sold for US$144,000 per carat at Sotheby's in 1989. In contrast, eight D-color internally flawless diamonds over 50 carats were purchased in the past 10 years along with the largest, a pear-shape of 102 carats, fetched a mere US$125,000 per carat. Top rubies are extremely rare even the world's top gem dealers must incessantly comb through wealthy estate sales and auctions to locate them. Clean bright stones in sizes above five carats are particularly rare.
Ruby may be the gem quality form of the mineral corundum, the other of the most durable minerals which exists, a crystalline form of aluminum oxide. Corundum has a hardness of 9 for the Mohs scale and it is quite challenging. In its common form, corundum is even used as an abrasive. Colors of Corundum other than red these are known as Sapphire. The element Chromium is responsible for the red colorization of the gem, but a lot of Chromium can certainly turn corundum emerald green coloured. Heat treatment solutions are quite normal in ruby gemstones (as is true for all types of corundum) which is used to dissolve "silk" inclusions, which leads to a much more transparent, more intensely colored stone. Heat treatment is considered permanent and will not usually detract from the value of the stone.
The most common supply of fine rubies is Burma, that's now called Myanmar. The ruby mines of Myanmar are older than history: stone age and bronze age mining tools have been discovered inside the mining section of Mogok. Rubies from the legendary mines in Mogok will have a pure beautiful red colors, which is often described as "pigeon's-blood" although that term is more fanciful than a genuine practical standard inside the trade today. Myanmar also produces intense pinkish red rubies which can be also vivid and extremely beautiful. Lots of the rubies from Burma possess a strong fluorescence when subjected to ultraviolet rays like those involved with sunlight, which layers on extra color. Burma rubies possess a status for holding their vivid color under all lighting conditions.
Fine rubies can also be found in Thailand. Thai rubies tend to be darker red in tone: a genuine red, tending toward burgundy as opposed to pink, as Burma rubies do. This will make them very popular in the us where consumers generally prefer their rubies to become darker red rather than darker pink. Some Thai rubies have black reflections, a phenomenon called extinction, that will make their color look darker than it is really. But Thai rubies may also have a rich vivid red that rivals the Burmese in intensity. Sri Lankan rubies can be very beautiful. Many Sri Lankan stones in many cases are pinkish in hue and lots of are pastel in tone. Some, however, resemble the vivid pinkish red hues from Burma.
Rubies from Kenya and Tanzania surprised the globe once they were discovered in the sixties since their color rivals the earth's best. Unfortunately, almost all of the ruby production from these countries has many inclusions, tiny flaws which diminish transparency. Rubies in the African mines are rarely transparent enough to facet. However, their fantastic color is displayed to full advantage when cut cabochon style. A few rare clean stones have been seen that are excellent.
The most important element in the need for a ruby is color. The very best qualities are as red as you know: a saturated pure spectral hue without the overtones of brown or blue. A rigorous pure, beautiful red colors, uniform color is the most valuable gem. Clarity can also be of secondary importance, but a fine colored gem with slight flaws is still greatly regarded. Large sizes rubies tend to be more rare than diamond as well as a worth of fine gem ruby increases significantly (in addition than other gems) to comprehend weight.
The term red comes from the Latin for ruby, ruber, which can be based on similar words in Persian, Hebrew, and Sanskrit. The level of colour of a superb ruby is similar to a glowing coal, one of the most intensely colored substance our ancestors ever saw. It's no surprise they ascribed magical powers about bat roosting fires that burned perpetually and don't extinguished themselves.
After color, one other factors which influence value of a ruby are clarity, cut, and size. Rubies that are perfectly transparent, without tiny flaws, are more valuable than those with inclusions which can be visible to the eye. Cut can produce a difference in how attractive and lively a ruby seems to the attention. A well-cut stone should reflect back light evenly across the surface with out a dark or washed-out area within the center that may derive from a stone that is certainly too deep or shallow. The shape should also be symmetrical and there should not be any nicks or scratches from the polish.
Ruby sometimes displays a three-ray, six-point star. These star rubies are decline in an effortless domed cabochon cut to produce the consequence. The star is best visible when illuminated using a single source of light: it moves across the stone because the light moves. This effect, called asterism, is caused by light reflecting off tiny rutile needles, called "silk," which are oriented down the crystal faces. Value of star rubies and sapphires suffer from two things: the intensity and attractiveness of our bodies color along with the strength and sharpness in the star. All six legs ought to be straight and equally prominent. Star rubies rarely possess the combination of a fine translucent or transparent color plus a sharp prominent star. These gems are valuable and expensive.
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