When you put on a ring with a red stone, everyone will ask - Is it a ruby? No one will ever ask is it red garnet rhodolite or red spinel? All these stones are beautiful and have their own characteristics and advantages, but the price difference is very significant.
Today we will learn how to choose the real natural ruby and not run into a fake one!
Hi everyone,
I’m Sasha Kareva and on this channel I talk about GEMSTONES. Welcome!
SET-UP
A ruby’s vibrant red color symbolizes passion and love and it’s associated with royalty and wisdom. These July birthstones are highly sought after as one of the hardest
gemstones around. Ruby’s hardness is 9. It means that this stone has very high durability and only diamond can scratch this gem. Rubies are also among the most precious gemstones, rivaling blue sapphires, diamonds, and emeralds.
Considering how valuable they are, it’s only natural to ensure that the stone you’re buying is the real deal. Here’s how to tell if a ruby is real and what you should know about identifying imitation rubies.
CONTENT
The only foolproof way of knowing whether your ruby is authentic is to take it to a gemological laboratory or to purchase it from a reputable retailer along with a certificate of authenticity. In my previous video I told a lot about the gemological reports. Don’t forget to check that video. However, there are some tips and tricks that you can do to help you identify your ruby.
So, how do you understand if it’s a real ruby, when it’s presented to you?
Maybe it is unexpected, but the first criteria can be price.
According to my experience, rubies that cost less than $2000 per carat are just a waste of money. Yes, real rubies can be sold at a cheaper price, but their quality is questionable.
Don't forget that precious stones are called precious because of their rarity and they CANNOT BE CHEAP. NEVER!
There is no upper limit for a gem. I held in my hands rubies from Mozambique that cost 40K$ per piece, it was around 5 carats. And I held a Burmese ruby priced $250К, even though it was the same weight, 5 carat. They had very intense color, many inclusions inside, quite strange cutting shapes and they were STILL not the best rubies in the world. There are rubies that cost millions of dollars, because of their rarity and quality.
By the way, a 55.22-carat ruby from Mozambique has become both the largest and most valuable gem of its kind ever to sell at auction, netting $34.8 million. This deal was done this year, in June.
Well, you may not come across the best ruby in the world but you can definitely find the best one for yourself.
Ok, start with observing the color, examine it. A genuine ruby should have a deep, rich red hue. If the color is too bright or too pink, it might be fake or it could simply be another kind of gem.
Then check for inclusions.
Inclusions are mineral formations that can be seen under magnification. You can’t see what kind of inclusions it is in loupe, but you can easily find out that the examined gem is not clear.
Real rubies almost always have small inclusions (loupe clean rubies are extremely rare and very
expensive).
Next step, examine the weight.
This can be tricky for beginners, but if a stone feels very light, it might be a fake. You need to test many stones to understand and to feel what is a very light stone in real practice. There is a certain density which can only be in the real stone. This method doesn’t work for finished jewelry, so to feel the difference in this case is almost impossible.
When you check the color, weight, and inclusions, you can also check the stone in UV light. Be aware, that UV light test will be just one more sign that you are dealing with the genuine ruby. Yet it still doesn’t give you a 100% answer, if it’s a real ruby or synthetic. For example, some rubies glow less than others (like Thai rubies), but it doesn't mean they are fake! Thai ruby glows less, because of their geological formation. Mozambique and Burmese rubies will display a strong/medium-strong red color under longwave and shortwave UV light. Usually, synthetic rubies tend to glow more than natural ones.
(Comment: I wouldn't use this method to verify the authenticity of any single ruby for sale; instead, I would use it to confirm the authenticity of a large number of rubies that you have purchased in a lot (if all the rubies are told to be from the same mine or origin). Use this method as a complement to others.
Next trick is The Scratch Test
As I mentioned, Ruby is highly resistant to scratches, ranking at 9 on the Mohs scale. It is second in durability only to diamond and moissanite, meaning that only a diamond (or an object with the hardness of a diamond) can scratch it. In comparison, glass is a mere 5.5.
Scratch the surface of your ruby with a key or coin and look for any scratch marks. If there are scratch marks, then the stone is probably a fake. A real ruby cannot be scratched so easily.
So, all these 6 steps will help you in the ruby examination.
What can you find in the gem market when you are choosing your beautiful ruby ?
So, I already mentioned in the beginning, that ruby in our jewelry can be natural, synthetic or simulated like garnet or tourmaline or even glass.
A natural ruby is one that has been formed by natural geological processes, over millions of years. They are formed in natural environments.
A natural ruby is made of corundum, the same element that creates sapphires. In fact, ruby is the red version of sapphire. Its hues are caused by chromium present during the stone’s formation.
Synthetic rubies are created in labs, rather than in nature. Chemically, optically, and structurally, a synthetic ruby is identical to natural rubies. However, while natural rubies take millions of years to form, synthetic ones can be created in a matter of months. There are few big brands which create synthetic rubies. I checked their price lists and I have to say that the price for synthetic ruby will surprise you.
Ready? High quality synthetic ruby , 3 carats will cost more than $2000. Now you understand why I don’t advise buying natural rubies cheaper than $2000 per carat and this proved one more time, that it will be a waste of money.
Red-Colored Glass are typically used as ruby imitations. These ‘rubies’ are inexpensive. It can be easy to tell a red-colored glass stone from a real ruby by the inclusions it has. Often, glass contains tiny air bubbles, you can find them in the loupe.
Beauty and rarity of natural gems is one of the things I’ll be covering more of on this channel. I will share all my experience and secrets of the industry. So do make sure to subscribe to watch more videos like this in future!
Ok, we found out the most important things:
that ruby can be natural or synthetic. All other cases will be their imitations.
Next big topic will be treatments of ruby. To produce or to remove color or inclusions rubies can undergo treatments. It's a worldwide practice. Even after these treatments rubies are called and remain natural, but better to know which type of treatments it had, because price and quality depends on it very much.
I have my stock in Bangkok. It is the capital of gem trading. If you would like to get a gemological report, we have a huge offer from small labs to labs with world names like GIA or Gubelin. You can find the link in description, choose the stones and also order the report from any laboratory in Bangkok.
Do you want to know which colors ruby can have and which deposits are the most popular? How does one carat cost and how treatments affect the price?
I have answers to all these questions, we will discuss them in the next videos.
So, we are done for today. Hope, now you know about the rubies more than before and will choose the most attractive gemstone for yourself. Please share in the comments the pictures of your ruby. We will enjoy true ruby together!