Ruby

Ruby is the red variety of corundum, colored by chromium. All other corundum colors are classified as sapphire, making ruby the rarest expression of the species and the most storied red stone in history.

Most rubies on the market are heated to improve color and clarity, an accepted practice centuries old. Unheated stones confirmed by a laboratory command a substantial premium, and we state the status plainly on every listing.

Pigeon blood describes a vivid, pure red with strong fluorescence, historically tied to Burmese stones. We use the term only where a laboratory report has applied it, never as a sales flourish.

Burma, today Myanmar, produced the stones that built ruby's legend, and its material carries strong fluorescence that gives the red an inner glow. That history and chemistry sustain a premium over Mozambique stones even at matching grades.

Color first: saturated red that stays alive in low light, without brown or purple shadows. Clarity is judged more gently than in sapphire, since fine silk is natural to the species, and cut decides how much color reaches the eye.

Yes. At 9 on the Mohs scale, ruby is second only to diamond in hardness and handles a daily ring for generations.

Every ruby ships with the Sosna Gems Colored Stone Report, our internal documentation. Independent laboratory certification can be arranged on request, and stones with existing laboratory reports have the laboratory named on the listing.

Yes, and with ruby it is the usual path: fine stones, especially unheated and origin-documented ones, often reach clients without ever being listed. Contact us with your parameters for color, origin, and budget.

Take them to low light. A fine ruby keeps burning where a commercial stone goes dark or brownish, and that inner glow, driven by fluorescence, is what separates the stones people remember from the ones they merely own.