Interesting Facts

The most popular color of spinal has been the noble red variety, which has often been mistaken for ruby. In fact, many of the world’s most famous “rubies “are actually apinels. For example, the 170-carat black prince’s ruby on the British Imperial State Crown and the 352-carat timur ruby have been authenticated as spinals by leading gemologists. This confusion is due not to their color similarities, but also to the close proximity of their deposits. Burma, identifying the variety in 1587, was the first to distinguish spinel as a distinctive gemstone type. At this time other countries still referred to spinel as “Balas Ruby”. Exceptional stones are found on the island of Sri Lanka and in Russia. However, most of the finest spinels currently available are mined in Burma.

Characterestics

Spinels come in many different color varieties, with ”hot” color such as red, orange and vibrant pink being the most expensive. Exceptional blue stones, also known as cobalt spinels, which resemble fine Sapphires ,have been discovered in Sri Lanka and command very high prices. A hard gem with no cleavage, spinel is excellent for jewelry settings.