The commonest colour of garnet gemstones is red, but they can occur in a wide range of colours including orange, yellow, green, purple, pink, blue and even black. Ruby is the birthstone for the month of July. The first ever laser used a ruby rod to generate a high energy laser beam. In engineering rubies are used in lasers. Ruby jewellery has found favour amongst the rich and the famous and the Queen’s personal ruby collection, which includes the 353 carat Timur ruby, is said to be worth over £50 million. Rubies are used in many different forms of jewellery either as a single stone or with other gemstones. The value of a ruby depends to a large extent on its colour, with vivid dark red rubies being the most highly prized. The special red colour is the result of luminescence, which gives this precious gemstone its characteristic lustre. Rubies are blood red gemstones that are physically similar to sapphires being the same crystalline form of alumina, but with a relatively high level of chrome incorporated in the crystal matrix. Elizabeth Taylor’s emerald and diamond necklace given to her by Richard Burton as a wedding gift is worth over $6 million, though even inexpensive emerald jewellery can look stunning.Įmerald is the birthstone for the month of May. Fine transparent emeralds can be more valuable than diamonds.Įmeralds make excellent jewellery and have been revered for thousands of years and are said to have been a love of Cleopatra. They aren’t hard like diamond and they may have many flaws which make them relatively brittle, though flawless emeralds can be highly valuable. They are a crystalline form of beryl, a beryllium-aluminium-silicate mineral, and their greenness is caused by traces of chrome and vanadium. EMERALDSĮmeralds are beautiful gemstones known for their distinctive verdant green colour. The sapphire is the birthstone for the month of September. Sapphire is also an important material in science and engineering it is used in high power electronics and in lasers. Kate Middleton’s blue sapphire engagement ring, which was once the engagement ring of Princess Dianna, is said to be worth £300,000, but the 563 carat Star of India is probably the most valuable sapphire in the world. Sapphires are almost as hard as diamond, and are used mainly in jewellery. All sapphires are crystalline aluminium oxide (alumina) and the various colours are the result of trace metal impurities such as chrome, which is responsible for their pink hues, and titanium and iron, which gives blue sapphires their colour. Pink-orange sapphires can be very valuable, and colourless sapphire resembles diamond. Sapphire is mostly thought of as a blue gemstone, though many other colours are available.
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