SAPPHIRE – from the Latin word meaning blue, the birthstone for September. Despite the huge gems you see in museums and Royal collections, sapphires available on the market are of a more modest size. Sapphires of the top blue color over 5 carats, if clean, are rare and expensive. Next to diamond, sapphire and ruby (both corundum) is the hardest mineral known and is very compact and dense. As a result, sapphires and rubies are tough and relatively scratch-resistant. That’s why, in addition to their beauty, sapphires and rubies are two of the best jewelry stones.Traditionally, sapphires are usually associated with the color blue. In modern times however, other colors of sapphires: pink, yellow, purple, orange, “padparadscha”, white and green are getting more and more popular, some of them reaching very high prices. There are also Montana sapphires with their popular shades of blue and green, as well as many other colors.
