Gems: Sapphire
Sapphire is also one of the four precious stones together with diamonds, emeralds and rubies . Sapphire is a very rare stone, what is why for thousands of years it has been appreciated by royal persons worldwide. Today, you can buy any jewelry with sapphires of various sizes and shapes, but it will be quite an expensive purchase.
History.
Some of the jewelry with sapphires, found by archaeologists were made even 800 years before our era. The ancients believed that the wisdom contained in sapphire, and it gives the mind and correct solutions for those who wear it. Powerful rulers and kings wore sapphires as they believed that these stones would protect them from danger and help to keep equanimity even under heavy stress. Sapphires occurred less often then diamonds, and this fact gave mighty of this world one more reason to prefer exactly this gem.
The first deposit of sapphires were located in territory of modern Sri Lanka, and today this place still makes blue sapphires. Currently, the largest supplier of sapphires are Australia and Africa, and Cambodia and Burma also resumed mining of high quality sapphire.
Variety.
All forms of the mineral corundum except red ruby and an extremely rare pink-orange stone padparadzha belong to the sapphires. There are many varieties of sapphire: changing color sapphires, star sapphires and fantasy (not blue) sapphires, but the most popular are the traditional blue sapphires.
Characteristics.
Sapphire is a very solid stone which is hard to beat, this making it the perfect gem stone. To determine the quality and cost of sapphire certain criterias are using: color, shine, clarity, cut and weight in carats. The blue color of sapphire is a consequence of the presence of titanium in the stone, and different amounts of titanium impurities gives different shades of blue to each sapphire. The truly blue sapphires have clean blue color with no obvious signs of other shades - yellow, violet or green. Blue sapphires also are of different shades: from light blue to deep dark blue. Shine and cleanliness of sapphires may be different, and it is easy to guess that as higher these numbers, as higher the quality of the stone.
Very often, sapphires are heat-treated for improving their color and clarity. However, it is possible to find untreated blue sapphires, although they are rare.
Wedding rings - one of the most popular jewelry with sapphires, along with necklaces and bracelets.
Today synthetic sapphires are widely produced, chemical composition completely imitates natural stone. But they are much cheaper alternative to expensive natural blue sapphires.
Size.
Like most other gem stones, sapphires are of various sizes, and their size is measured in carats. Sapphires, which weight is less than 1 carat, can be purchased for quite reasonable price. But high-quality sapphire weighing 20 carats or more are extremely rare and very expensive. Large sapphires occur quite often, but with increasing of the size, they often lose the clarity and transparency. Most of the high-quality sapphires weighing less than 2 carats, and cost more than $ 2,000 per carat.
Misconceptions.
One of the most common misconception is that all sapphires are blue. This is absolutely not true. The truth is that the blue sapphire is the most expensive and demanded, but any crystal of corundum except rubies and padparadzha is considered a sapphire. Pink and yellow sapphires have recently become more affordable and popular gem stones all over the world.
