Ruby, July's birthstone, is primarily a gem of the orient. Rubies seldom are found in gem quality or size. These factors, combined with primitive mining techniques over the past centuries, make the ruby one of the scarcest of the popular gemstones. It is the red variety of the mineral "corundum" as a sister in composition to sapphire, but its red is caused by the presence of chromium. It has a hardness of 9 on the Mohs Scale making it an ideal stone for everyday wear.
The term ruby comes to us from the Latin word "ruber," meaning red. Legends hold that the wearer of a ruby would be blessed with great wisdom, wealth, health and love. No other gemstone increases in value as its size increases faster than ruby. Although it has been feverishly mined since biblical times, few large rubies exist. The main mining areas are the famed Mogok Valley in Burma, Myanmar, Thailand and East Africa.
The most desired and expensive color of ruby is the deep blood red shade called, "pigeon red," because of its exact dark resemblance to that of pigeon blood. A fabulous collection of fine rubies sank with the liner Meridan in 208 feet of water off the Virginia coast near Cape Charles. Once owned by a Belgian princess, the jewels were never recovered and are worth many millions of dollars if they are ever retrieved.
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