Buyer's Guide: Ruby

    Throughout history, ruby has been considered the king of gems. In Sanskrit, ruby was called ratnaraj, which means "king of gems". Wearing ruby was thought to bring health, wealth, wisdom, and success in love. Worn in a ring on the left hand or in a brooch on the left side, it gave the magical ability to live in peace among enemies. The Burmese thought a ruby inserted in a warrior's flesh made him invincible.

    The Union of Myanmar (Burma) and Sri Lanka are the oldest ruby sources. Myanmar's production has fluctuated since World War II, but the Burmese rubies from this country include stones connoisseurs consider the world's best. The Mogok region in Burma has produced rubies with the finest red color. Rubies are still found in Sri Lanka but in very small quantities and the stones are often pale, almost pink. Thailand is today the main source of rubies. Thai rubies are generally a bit darker than the Burmese rubies with a violet tinge and fewer inclusions. Other sources of ruby include Afghanistan, India, Kenya, Pakistan, Tanzania, and Cambodia.

    The rubies used in jewelry today normally range from melee sizes up to about five carats. Large, high quality rubies are among the rarest of gems.

    The British Museum collection includes a crystal that weighs 3,450 carats and there is a 196.1-carat crystal in the LA County Museum of Natural History. The Edwardes Ruby, part of the British Crown Jewels, weighs 167 carats.

    Ruby's color varies from orangey red to violet red, but because the gem is pleochroic, different colors can be found in the same stone. The color is also accompanied by marked fluorescence that is stimulated by ordinary artificial light and above all, by the ultraviolet rays of direct sunlight. Thus reddish rubies turn brighter red under such light and the purplish ones look "redder".

    If the color of the gemstone is too pale, it may be considered pink sapphire instead of ruby; if the color is more violet than red it is considered a violet sapphire.
    Medieval alchemists in Europe deemed rubies to be of immense value, believing them to possess unsurpassed magical powers to increase wealth. Their contemporaries in India concurred: rubies attracted other precious gems like magnets to their owners. Rubies were also important talismans: stones of Mars, they bestowed invincibility and curative powers on their bearers. They also conferred wisdom. "The price of wisdom is above rubies," explains Job in the Bible.

    Freedom fighters and revolutionaries considered them tokens of liberty and justice. The Burmese, whose land continues to produce the world's best rubies, used to believe that the beautiful minerals ripened like so many fruits on earth: the redder, the riper. Several people still maintain the idea that rubies have the power to cleanse your thoughts and replenish energy. Placed under your pillow, rubies are said to guarantee undisturbed sleep and sweet dreams. And of course, lovers have always esteemed them beyond mere material value.

    A variety of the mineral family that also includes sapphires and is known as corundum, the crystal form of aluminum oxide, rubies are the world's most prized gems. Their stunning beauty, exceptional hardness (close second to diamonds), and great rarity (the rarest of precious gems) all make rubies the peerless Queen of Gemstones coveted by gem lovers worldwide. Fine gem-grade rubies carry the greatest commercial value.

    The mines of Myanmar (formerly Burma) produce the world's largest yield of top-quality rubies, prized for their distinctive crystal-clear deep-red hues. Neighboring Thailand and Cambodia are famous for their dark to brownish-red gems. Ceylon rubies (from Sri Lanka), in turn, sparkle in medium to light tones, while Africa provides the world with its small purplish-red stones. While rubies are often mined elsewhere, Thailand remains the unrivalled world-center for the gem, along with sapphires, with an estimated 80 percent of all the globe's rubies and sapphires processed in Bangkok.

    The Ruby has been the world's most valued gemstone for thousands of years. The ruby was said to be the most precious of the twelve stones God created when he created all things. This "lord of gems" was placed on Aaron's neck by God's command. The bible says that "wisdom is more precious than rubies," that is to say: very valuable indeed. In the ancient language of Sanskrit, ruby is called ratnaraj, or "king of precious stones."

    In fact, rubies today are still more valuable and rare than even top-quality colorless diamonds. A 16 carat ruby sold 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. That is $146,145 per carat!

    In contrast, eight D-color internally flawless diamonds were sold in the past 9 years and the largest, a pear-shape of 102 carats, fetched a mere US $125,000 per carat. Top rubies are so rare even the world's top gem dealers must incessantly comb estate sales and auctions to find them. Sizes above five carats are particularly scarce.

    Ruby is derived from the mineral corundum, one of the most durable minerals in existence and a crystalline form of aluminum oxide. Corundum has a hardness of 9 on the Mohs scale and is also extremely tough. In its common form, it is used as an abrasive.

    Choosing a Ruby

    The most important factor in the value of a ruby is color. Rubies are red. The truer the red, the more precious the stone. The top quality rubies are as red as you can imagine: a saturated pure spectral hue without any overtones of brown or blue. The word red is derived from the Latin for ruby, "ruber", which is thus derived from similar words in Persian, Hebrew, and Sanskrit. The intensity of color in a fine ruby is like a glowing coal, probably the most intensely colored substance our ancestors ever saw. It is no wonder they ascribed magical powers to these perpetually burning firestones....

    All colors of corundum -except red - are known as sapphires, which has created controversy about where ruby ends and sapphire begins. This confusion is most particular in pink shades of corundum. In 1991, the International Colored Gemstone Association ruled that the lighter shades of the reddish hues of corundum should be included in the category of ruby.

    After color, the other factors which influence the value of a ruby are clarity, cut and size. Rubies that are perfectly transparent, with no tiny flaws, are more valuable than those with inclusions which are visible to the eye. Cut can make a big difference in how attractive and lively a ruby appears to the eye. A well-cut stone should reflect back light evenly across the surface without a dark or washed-out area in the center that can result from a stone that is too deep or shallow. The shape should also be symmetrical and there should not be any nicks or scratches in the polish.

    Rubies and other gemstones are sold per carat, a unit of weight equal to one-fifth of a gram. Larger rubies, because they are more rare, will cost more per carat than smaller stones of the same quality.

    Rubies sometimes come in a three-ray, six-point star. These star rubies are cut in a smooth domed-cabochon cut to display the effect. The star is best visible when illuminated with a single light source: it moves across the stone as the light moves. This effect, called asterism, is caused by light reflecting off tiny rutile needles called "silk," which are oriented along the crystal faces.

    The value of star rubies and sapphires are influenced by two things: the intensity/attractiveness of the body color and the strength/sharpness of the star. All six legs should be straight and equally prominent. Star rubies rarely have the combination of a fine translucent or transparent color and a sharp prominent star. These gems are valuable and expensive.

    Where Rubies are Born

    The most famous source of fine rubies is Burma, which is now called Myanmar. The ruby mines of Myanmar are older than history: stone age and bronze age mining tools have been found in the mines of Mogok. Rubies from this mine have a pure red color, which is often described as "pigeon's-blood." Myanmar also produces intense pinkish red rubies which are also vivid and extremely beautiful. Many of the rubies from Burma have a strong fluorescence when exposed to ultraviolet rays like those in sunlight. They also have a reputation of holding their vivid color under all lighting conditions.

    Since demand for fine rubies is limited by the tiny supply available, new sources are always treated as exciting news in the trade. An important new mining area in Burma is called Mong Hsu.

    The Mong Hsu ruby deposit is producing considerable quantities of commercial-quality Burma Ruby and also significant quantities of fine quality Burma Ruby, particularly in sizes up to one carat. Burma Ruby is now more readily available than Thai Ruby, due to the new ruby rush in the area.

    The new deposit has also affected the world capital of the ruby business: Thailand. Many of the ruby traders and cutters from Chanthaburi and Bo Rai have moved to Mae Sai in Thailand. In Tachilek in Myanmar, across the border from Mae Sai, a flourishing trade in Mong Hsu ruby has transformed a village into a prosperous town. Most Mong Hsu ruby is cut and marketed in Thailand.

    Thailand is the world's most important ruby trading center. Perhaps 80 percent of the world's ruby goes through Thailand at some point in the trading cycle. The largest ruby cutting factories are in the Chanthaburi area of Thailand. Bangkok is generally where the world's buyers come to purchase this phenomenal red gem.

    In 1992, a new ruby mine was discovered in Vietnam that produces rubies which are very similar to rubies from Burma. In fact, the geology of the new mine may be a continuation of the same formation that produced the Burma deposits. Some of the new Vietnamese rubies have been praised by experts as being virtually indistinguishable from top quality Burmese stones.

    Fine rubies are also found in Thailand. Thai rubies tend to be darker red in tone: a real red, tending toward burgundy rather than pink, as Burma rubies do. This makes them very popular in the United States where consumers generally prefer their rubies to be a darker red rather than pink. Some Thai rubies have black reflections, a phenomenon called extinction, which can make their color look darker than it really is. But, Thai rubies also can have a rich vivid red that rivals the Burmese in intensity.

    Sri Lankan rubies can also be very beautiful. Sri Lankan stones are often pinkish in hue and many are pastel in tone. Some, however, resemble the vivid pinkish red hues from Burma.

    Rubies from Kenya and Tanzania surprised the world when they were discovered in the sixties because their color rivals the world's best. Unfortunately, most of the ruby production from these countries have many inclusions - tiny flaws which diminish transparency. Rubies from the African mines are rarely transparent enough to facet. However, their fantastic color is displayed to full advantage when cut cabochon style.

    Occasionally a few fine top-quality rubies appear on the market from Afghanistan, Pakistan, or the Pamir Mountains of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The terrain in these areas has made exploration for gemstones very difficult but someday they may produce significant quantities for the world market.