~ JULY ~
The Queen of gems, deep red ruby is the rarest and most valuable gemstone. It’s the second hardest natural mineral, next to diamond. Above all other gemstones, including Diamonds, Rubies are the most expensive per Carat – a 15.97 Carat faceted Mogok Ruby was sold at Sotheby’s in New York for an amazing $3,630,000 in October 1988. This comes to $227,301 per Carat!
It is from the Latin “ruber” meaning red. Because of its beauty and rarity, the Greeks called it the mother of all gemstones. The Romans called it a flower among stones. Ruby varies in color from dark to purple red, and is the July birthstone. It’s the anniversary gemstone for the 15th and 40th year of marriage and the Zodiac Birthstone for Capricorn.
The earliest record for the mining of Rubies goes back more than 2,500 years ago in Sri Lanka. Burma is the world’s largest provider of high quality Rubies. Burmese Rubies from the Mogok Valley are considered the finest in the world. Thailand, with large deposits near the Cambodian border, was previously the world’s largest provider of Rubies, but the mining has fallen off recently. Bright red stones are mined in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Vietnam. Brownish-red rubies are from Thailand. Darker stones are generally produced from the mines in Australia, India, Russia and USA (Georgia, North Carolina and Wyoming). African Rubies have heavy inclusions and India is famous for supplying Indian Star Rubies. Gems without inclusions are very rare. Most have inclusions which are not visible to the naked eye, and they don’t reduce the value of the stone as long as there is brilliance.
