Ruby

Pigeon blood red

Dark ruby

If you were born in July, then Ruby is your gem! Ruby is a gem that is very common in royal insignia and is used in very expensive jewelry. Ruby is also commonly used to celebrate a couple's 15th and 40th anniversary. The ruby was named after the Latin word for red, "ruber". This is a perfect name for it. Many of the most desired rubies are considered pigeon's blood red. The more common rubies are usually pink, orange, purple, and brownish red.

spinel

Many tales of large rubies are not true. This is so because many of the gems that were thought to be rubies were spinels, a similar gem. But I'll talk about spinels some other time. Here are some gems that ARE real. Real stones of outstanding beauty and color are the "Edwardes Ruby",weight 167 ct, displayed at the British Museum of Natural History in London, the "Rosser Reeves Star Ruby", of 138.7 ct, to be seen at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the "De Long Star Ruby", weight 100 ct, shown in the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the "Peace Ruby", 43 ct, which was found in 1919.

Rubies are very close to diamonds on the Moh's scale of hardness. Rubies are the second hardest, rating a 9 on the scale. So where are rubies found? Well, rubies can be found in many places, but mainly Madagascar, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.For a long time, India was also thought to be a large ruby deposit. In the Sanskrit language, rubies are called ratnaraj, which means king of gems. In the ancient times, a main reason for having a ruby was because they were believed to keep bad disease away.