Spinel is the great impostor of gemstones Many famous rubies in crown jewelsaround the world are actually spinels. The most famous is the Black Prince's ruby, a 170-carat Red Spinel – the centre-stone in the Imperial State Crown of England, The Timur Ruby, a 361-carat red spinel now owned by Queen Elizabeth, has names of some Mughal emperors who previously owned it engraved on its face.
A spectacular color of Spinel is a hot pink - In addition to beautiful reds, and a range of gorgeous pastel shades of pink and purple.Spinel also comes in beautiful blue tones with cobalt called cobalt spinel, are very rare, found almost exclusively in Sri Lanka . Fine Red spinels are now rarer than Rubies. < See list of World Famous Gems >
Today, spinel is a favorite of gem dealers and gem collectors due to its brilliance, hardness and wide range of spectacular colors. Vivid traffic light red and cobalt blue are the most expensive colors for spinel and nice stones over 3cts. in size are always a rarity. Top quality red spinels display superb bright and saturated red colors that actually fluoresce, or glow, in natural light.
Pure colorless natural spinel is extremely rare and natural white spinels always show a trace of pink. Star spinels are found occasionally and they may display either four or six rays depending on their orientation Dark Green Spinel called Ceylonite is a Rare color of spinel found only in Sri Lanka .
Spinel is commonly found in alluvial gravels with corundum and also in association with with gneiss, serpentine, calcite, dolomite, and garnet.
With a hardness of 8 and no cleavage planes, spinel is a tough and durable gemstone suitable for any kind of jewelry. Its' luster is vitreous and rough crystals can be transparent, translucent or nearly opaque. A member of the isometric system, the octahedron is the typical habit. Dodecahedrons and combinations of other isometric forms are also common. Many crystals are twinned on the plane of the octahedral face forming flattened triangular forms known as “spinel twins”.
Precious spinels appear strikingly clean and free of inclusions. This impression is due among other things to the lack of liquid inclusions. The best proof of spinel is spinel and microscopic octahedra may be scattered in long chains and sinuous bands throughout inner stretches of the host crystal. Besides these mini spinels, spinel shelters a whole range of other guest minerals including albite, anhydrite, apatite, baddeleyite, calcite, olivine, and titanite.
Famous Spinels
1) Perhaps the most famous spinel is the "Black Prince's Ruby", a magnificent 170-carat red spinel that currently adorns the Imperial State Crown in the British Crown Jewels. This stone as large as a hen's egg, weighing approximately 170 carats. Spectacular red that seems to glow with an internal fire of its own. It's actually a spinel with a long and fascinating history.
2) The Timur Ruby, also in the Crown Jewels of England, is even larger, weighing 361 carats. It is inscribed with the names of six of its former owners. This is also a Spinel.
3) The Kremlin Museum in Moscow has another giant gem that probably belonged to the Tsar - weighs 414 carats.
4) The most dazzling collection of fine red spinels is found in the Crown Jewels of Iran. The majority were plundered from India when the Mogul Empire fell. The largest one weighs about 500 carats, and it is indeed the biggest on record. Many others weigh over 100 carats, and more than a dozen have been carved with the name of Jahangir, a Mogul emperor over 350 years ago.
Red spinel has never been as abundant as ruby, and today it is quite difficult to find. The old mines in Afghanistan have been worked out, and the gem gravels of Sri Lanka and Africa , which provide us with many beautiful pastel colored spinels, rarely contain gems with the pure intense red color.
