As the ultimate red gemstone, rubies have inspired passion and romance for ages. Ruby is the birthstone for month of July, and sometimes married couples celebrating their 15th and 40th wedding anniversary get some ruby presents.

Ruby History & Lore

Because the color of blood, the stone is symbolic of courage and bravery. Warriors were said to have implanted Rubies under their skin to bring them valor in battle and make them invincible.

The stone has also been used as a talisman against danger, disaster, to stop bleeding, and a number of other ailments.

Its intense color was thought to come from an undying flame inside the stone; or, as some legends would have it, a piece of planet Mars.

Ruby is the red variety of corundum, a sister of Sapphire. Like Sapphire, Ruby is measured 9 on the Mohs scale of hardness, making it the second hardest material known after diamonds.

The most valuable Rubies come from Burma, formerly known as Burma, but they are mined throughout Southeast Asia.

What makes Burmese Ruby so important is that clarity and cut being equal, the Burma stone is far superior to the Thai ruby.

Why is this so? In a word-- iron! The Chantaburi-Trat mining district is iron rich. Thus, during the ruby's formation somewhat over one hundred fifty million years ago trace amounts of iron became part of the gem's chemical composition.

Iron lends the Thai ruby its characteristically brownish cast and quenches the natural fluorescence of the ruby crystal. This means that Thai Ruby is barely florescent under ultraviolet light.

By contrast, the pure white metamorphic marbles of the ruby mining districts of Burma are iron poor. Conditions in Burma are ideal for the formation of ruby crystals (Aluminum Oxide with trace amounts of chromium) which are an exceptionally pure red and which fluoresce strongly under ultraviolet light.

As any diamond lover knows, ultraviolet fluorescence, while technically invisible to the naked eye, imparts an increased intensity to the color of gem. This causes the color to radiate like the juxtaposed hues of an Op Art painting or glow like a "blue-white" diamond.

Actually the Burma ruby will often fluoresce slightly in visible light. The absence of the diluting effect of iron gives the Burma ruby a superior color saturation.

Properties: Burma Ruby (Corundum)

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