Rubies info

Ruby Properties and other information

Hardness -                            Ruby has a hardness of 9.0

Specific Gravity -                   3.96-4.01

Countries Ruby is Found -   Ruby is found worldwide.

Birthstone Months -            July  : Modern, Polish, Russian birthstone

                                            December  : Roman, Arabic, Hebrew

Anniversary Months -         Ruby is the anniversary month stone of 15th and 40th year.

Star Stone Months -            Ruby is the Star Stone of Capricorn and Cancer. It is the Planetary stone of Scorpio.

Care and Treatment -          Ruby looses its polish if it gets wet. Avoid harsh treatment of your Ruby jewelry that involves hard blows, impact and chemicals. Protect your Ruby jewelry from scratches.

Guide for Shopping -           Ruby is red in color, it is not reddish purple or pink. Always buy Ruby from professional retail jeweler. It is very difficult to find difference between natural ruby and synthetic ruby. A genuine gemologist will always tell you which is synthetic and natural. Purple Sapphires are very much similar to ruby. The color of ruby is the important identifying factor that differentiates between ruby and sapphire. Ruby is red in color where as sapphires are reddish purple or pink in color. Often rubies are treated to enhance its color. Treated ruby is not costly when compared to natural ruby. Natural ruby is very expensive.
 

Healing Powers -                Ruby protects the wearer from misfortune and bad health. It gives more self confidence. Ruby is closely attached with heart chakra. Ruby is used as a healer for both physical and emotional problems. Ruby improves ones strength and courage. Ruby maintains your youthful appearance. It is said that rubbing ruby with your skin maintains your beauty. It is also known as stone of love.

Ruby Rings, Earrings, and Jewelry

Ruby History

Ruby is one among the famous Big Four gemstones, diamonds, emeralds, sapphires and rubies. Ruby is rare to be found. It has the hardness second to diamond. Ruby belongs to the red variety of corundum. The red color in ruby is due to the presence of chromium.

The word 'ruby' came from the Latin word 'rubens' meaning 'red'. Ruby is known as 'ratnaraj' in Sanskrit. The word 'ratna' means gem and 'raj' means king, meaning king of gemstones. Greeks called them mother of all gemstones because of its distinguishing beauty and rarity. For Romans it is the flower among gemstones. According to ancient Orientals ruby is also known as 'the glowing stone'. Hindus believed that rubies are used to lighten the homes of gods and goddesses. It is said that rubies ripen with age where as Sapphires will not. Some Greek legends also talk about ruby. The story narrates that a female stork brought ruby in response to Heraclea's kindness. It is believed that the ruby was so bright enough to enlighten the room of Heraclea.

The red color of ruby is the greatest attraction of ruby jewelry. Ruby is well known as a love stone, so the gift of ruby pendants or ruby rings are more appreciated among lovers. Being an expensive gemstone, ruby jewelry is considered as a luxury ornament. Ruby bracelets and Ruby chains are simply the great to adorn your personality.

How to Buy a Ruby

Ruby is a hard stone that comes next to diamond. Similar to diamond you should check for color, cut, clarity and carat of ruby before buying. Ruby is red in color. There are different types of stones that are treated to get color similar to ruby. So always make sure you get your ruby jewelry from a reputed dealer. Rubies will have inclusions in it. Make sure the inclusions are not so prominent. Good quality ruby will have minimum inclusions and fractures. Presence of fractures may weaken your precious stone.

Some questions to ask when purchasing a Ruby are:

• Enquire whether your Ruby is treated for color or other properties
• Check for flaws in your stone, any visible flaws should be taken into care
• uniqueness of color is very important.
• There should not be any visible inclusions. You can check for visible inclusions through microscope
• Note for any distinctive scratches in the gem 

It is better to compare the price of the stone with other jewelry shop and retailers for the same quality of Ruby. Basic information of the crystal will help you in buying good crystal.

Care

Ruby is a hard stone, so caring ruby is very easy. You can clean you ruby jewelry using a soft cloth to remove oil or other dirt. You can use ultrasonic jewelry cleaner to clean your ruby jewelry, just make sure your ruby doesn't have much inclusions. As ultrasonic cleaner may cause damage the treatments done for the inclusions. Periodical cleaning of your ruby jewelry is very essential to maintain the glory of your precious collections. Soaking ruby jewelry in alcohol, vodka, ammonia in the ratio of (1:6 parts of ammonia and water) will loosen the dirt in them. Use soft brush to remove the dirt. Never wear ruby jewelry especially ruby rings while doing hard work. Even though it will not harm the ruby stone it will loosen the prongs and settings. Always check for the prongs and settings to ensure your ruby is safe in the jewelry.

Colors of Ruby: - Ruby is red in color.

From "http://gemstones.mysolitaire.com"

A Brief History Of Gold

from "www.onlygold.com"

A child finds a shiny rock in a creek, thousands of years ago, and the human race is introduced to gold for the first time.

Gold was first discovered as shining, yellow nuggets. "Gold is where you find it," so the saying goes, and gold was first discovered in its natural state, in streams all over the world. No doubt it was the first metal known to early hominids.

Gold became a part of every human culture. Its brilliance, natural beauty, and luster, and its great malleability and resistance to tarnish made it enjoyable to work and play with.

Because gold is dispersed widely throughout the geologic world, its discovery occurred to many different groups in many different locales. And nearly everyone who found it was impressed with it, and so was the developing culture in which they lived.

Gold was the first metal widely known to our species. When thinking about the historical progress of technology, we consider the development of iron and copper-working as the greatest contributions to our species' economic and cultural progress - but gold came first.

Gold is the easiest of the metals to work. It occurs in a virtually pure and workable state, whereas most other metals tend to be found in ore-bodies that pose some difficulty in smelting. Gold's early uses were no doubt ornamental, and its brilliance and permanence (it neither corrodes nor tarnishes) linked it to deities and royalty in early civilizations .

Gold has always been powerful stuff. The earliest history of human interaction with gold is long lost to us, but its association with the gods, with immortality, and with wealth itself are common to many cultures throughout the world.

Early civilizations equated gold with gods and rulers, and gold was sought in their name and dedicated to their glorification. Humans almost intuitively place a high value on gold, equating it with power, beauty, and the cultural elite. And since gold is widely distributed all over the globe, we find this same thinking about gold throughout ancient and modern civilizations everywhere.

Gold, beauty, and power have always gone together. Gold in ancient times was made into shrines and idols ("the Golden Calf"), plates, cups, vases and vessels of all kinds, and of course, jewelry for personal adornment.

The "Gold of Troy" treasure hoard, excavated in Turkey and dating to the era 2450 -2600 B.C., show the range of gold-work from delicate jewelry to a gold gravy boat weighing a full troy pound. This was a time when gold was highly valued, but had not yet become money itself. Rather, it was owned by the powerful and well-connected, or made into objects of worship, or used to decorate sacred locations.

Gold has always had value to humans, even before it was money. This is demonstrated by the extraordinary efforts made to obtain it. Prospecting for gold was a worldwide effort going back thousands of years, even before the first money in the form of gold coins appeared about 700 B.C.

In the quest for gold by the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Indians, Hittites, Chinese, and others, prisoners of war were sent to work the mines, as were slaves and criminals. And this happened during a time when gold had no value as 'money,' but was just considered a desirable commodity in and of itself.

The 'value' of gold was accepted all over the world. Today, as in ancient times, the intrinsic appeal of gold itself has that universal appeal to humans. But how did gold come to be a commodity, a measurable unit of value?

History of the diamond trade in Amsterdam

The start of the Amsterdam diamond trading began at the end of the sixteenth century (1586), when one diamond polisher called Willem Vermaet chose to make Amsterdam his city of residence. In the seventeenth century, known as 'the Golden age' in Dutch history because of the leading role Amsterdam played in the world economy, the diamond business was centered around the Rembrandtplein. Wars and economic crises heavily damaged the Amsterdam diamond trade. After the Second World War almost nothing was left of it. During the war more than 2000 Amsterdam Jewish diamond polishers were deported to the concentration camps in Germany and Poland.

Restored to its former glory
After the war, the diamond trade recovered some of its earlier glory due to the efforts of the diamond merchants and help from abroad. Nowadays, the diamond trade attracts millions of tourists and buyers from around the world. Also for industrial diamonds Amsterdam is very important. Most diamond polishers, as well as diamond traders, give demonstrations in diamond cutting and many of the world-renowned diamond stores can be found in Amsterdam.

Famous diamonds
Many famous diamonds were cut and polished in Amsterdam. For example, the "Cullinan," the largest diamond ever found. The "Koh-I-Noor," which means Mountain of Light, was cut for the British Crown Jewels in 1852. Furthermore, the world's smallest diamond, just 0.00012 carat, but with 57 facets, was cut in Amsterdam.