Sapphire

Sapphire, is found in a range of colours, from midnight blue to the bright blue, golden yellow to firey redish-orange and delicate violets. The most famous and valuable sapphires are a rich intense royal blue. Sapphire symbolizes truth, sincerity and faithfulness, it is also the symbol of pure and wise rulers and therefore the British Crown jewels are full of sapphire. It is the favorite choice for an engagement ring. The birthstone for the month September, Sapphire, is also the gemstone for the sun-sign Taurus. Sapphires come from Sri Lanka, Thailand, Australia, and Cambodia. Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, China, Vietnam, Madagascar, and the United States also produce sapphire. The deposits in Montana in the United States produce a range of fancy colors.

The most famous sources for sapphire are Kashmir and Burma now known as Myanmar. However, today, these two sources account only for a very small quantity of the sapphire on the market. Most fine sapphire comes from Sri Lanka. Thailand and Cambodia are renowned for deep blue, even colors. Madagascar and Tanzania, produce sapphires too. The most valuable sapphires are of a vivid blue color. Black, gray, or green overtones in blue, reduces a stone's value. A paler blue stone will be less preferred than a darker hue. Sapphires from Kashmir have a velvety mist-like texture which enhances the richness of the blue. Sapphires in other than blue colour, are known as fancy sapphires.

Yellow, bright orange, lavender, purple and bluish green colors are very popular. The toughest and the most hardest of all gemstones, Next only to diamond, sapphire is used in the clockwork of wrist watches to make it scratch proof. Sapphires are most often cut in a cushion shape, rounded or rectangle. Sapphires are also cut in round brilliant, triangles, squares, emerald cut, marquises, pear, baquette and dome shaped cabochon. Some cabochon sapphire are polished to give a star effect similar to rubies, caused by rutile needles. The brightness of the star and the evenness of it's sides are the parameters to judge to star sapphire. A red sapphire is called a ruby. Pink shades of corundum are known either as pink rubies or pink sapphires.

                                                      
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The stone belongs to the Quartz group and the prefix smoky depicts it's smoky color. If the stone is very dark it's also called 'morion' and 'cairngorm'.

Its deposits can be found in Russia, Madagascar, Scotland, Switzerland, Brazil and Ukraine.

                                                      
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Spinel

Spinel, especially red spinel was mistaken for ruby for many years because of the striking resemblance. Many famous rubies in crown jewels around the world are actually spinel. The most famous is the Black Prince's Ruby, a magnificent 170-carat red spinel that adorns the Imperial State Crown in the British Crown Jewels. Well-Known Timur Ruby is actually a 352-carat red spinel at present owned by Queen Elizabeth. Spinel occurs in all colours, the favorite being a ruby-like red.

The most sought after is a vivid hot pink with a tinge of orange that is found in Myanmar. Very rare are the blue coloured spinel, sometimes, called cobalt spinel. Spinel deposits occur in Myanmar, Afghanistan, Australia, Brazil, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Tadjikstan, New Zealand, India, Thailand, Nepal, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Finland and U.S.A. spinel is mined in Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and, part of the former Soviet Union.

Tanzanite

A velvety blue variety of the mineral zoisite - tanzanite has a relatively short history. Having been discovered in the year 1967 and named after the country in which it was discovered by Tiffany & Co. who introduced it to the world market in 1969, it is often compared to the finest sapphire. Tanzanite shows different colours when viewed in different directions. One direction would display intense blue and other direction could show brown or paler blue.

Tanzanite is brown colour when found in ground. With gentle heating, the stone turns into a beautiful blue colour. The color of tanzanite is intense in sizes above ten carats. Smaller tanzanites are usually paler and tanzanites with purple colour are less expensive.