Ruby's Are Red
A variety of elements impart to corundum its variety of hues. Gemologists classify corundum of any color other than red as a sapphire. Pure corundum is colorless.
How the Ruby Got its Name
The name 'ruby' derived from the Latin “rubens” meaning 'red'. Two magical elements are associated with the symbolism of this color: fire and blood, implying warmth and life for mankind.
What Makes a Ruby Valuable
Color is a ruby's most important feature, so the brightest and reddest have the most value. Clarity, while significant, factors less into assessing a stone’s value. Cut and size also determines worth. Natural rubies contain color impurities and inclusions. These distinguish them from man-made rubies—or other gems that resemble rubies. Before faceting, nearly all rubies today are treated in some way. Heat-treating, the most common practice, enhances color, improves clarity, fills in cracks and removes excessive inclusions. In the late 1990’s, the process’s growing popularity affected the rarity of this gem causing prices to drop.
An inferior treatment involves filling a ruby’s interior fractures with lead glass. This alters the stone’s transparency, making many rubies of less-than-gem quality appear good enough for jewelry. To add color, the glass powder is infused with copper, metal oxides, or other elements. This process may be repeated up to four times until the ruby displays the desired color and clarity.
Ruby Legends
- Toss a ruby into a pot of water to make it boil instantly.
- Powdered and placed on the tongue, rubies could cure indigestion.
- Rubies bring fortune, love, and strength and drives away hostile forces.
- A ruby's red glow emanates from an inextinguishable internal flame.
- If worn on the left hand, a ruby will bring good fortune to its wearer.
- A talisman against evil, a ruby would darken with approaching peril and return to its original color once danger passed.
Brightest Star Rubies
Also sometimes seen in sapphires, some rare rubies show a six-point star. Cutting these gems into rounded, polish cabochons as opposed to faceting enhances the “internal star” effect. Only very specific kinds of inclusions cause this phenomenon. Some rubies display a wonderful lustrous shine; this is the ruby’s “silk,” caused by very fine needles of rutile, a titanium ore. Rays of light form a horizontal line that run through the stone forming the illusion of a star that situates the star right in the ruby’s center.
Faux Rubies
By the 19th century, scientists could synthesize crystalline corundum. In naturally-occurring rubies, fewer inclusions mean greater value. There is no “perfect ruby” in nature, so if one appears so, it’s probably artificial.
Red spinel, red garnet and glass colored with red foil have all been falsely identified as rubies.
Where Rubies Dwell
For a long time India was regarded as the ruby's classical country of origin. The word “corundum” derives from the Sanskrit “kuruvinda, which means ruby! A ruby’s pigmentation depends on its origin. The red with a slight bluish hue called “pigeon-blood red” is typical of the brilliant gems mined in Myanmar’s (Burma) “Valley of the Rubies”. This color provides the yardstick against which all rubies are measured.
India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Kenya, Madagascar, Cambodia, and Montana and the Carolinas have also yielded rubies.
Whereas rubies of Vietnamese origin generally display a slightly purplish hue, Thai rubies often have a darker red which tends towards brown. The now-rare raspberry red rubies characterize Sri Lankan gems.
Sadly, the Burmese ruby miners suffer horrible conditions. Mine owners often drug the workers in order to increase their productivity. Consciousness of these inhumane practices has spurred protests and boycotts by human rights organizations and many gem dealers.
