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 September
(Sapphire)
- Blue in various hues, colorless, pink, orange, yellow,
green, purple and black
- Moh's scale of hardness 9
While blue is the most well known color of sapphire jewelry,
it is not the only color available. In fact, sapphire, which
is really the mineral corundum, can be found in any other
color except red. Red varieties of corundum are known as
Ruby. It is the elements iron and titanium that gives sapphire
its blue color, while other elements result in different
colors varying from black to orange to clear, green and
pink. Sapphire jewelry can be found in most all of these
colors. Becoming rarer to find is the exotic Star Sapphire.
This mysterious variety is believed to be caused by needle-like
inclusions of rutile that result in a silky sheen causing
an asterism, or star, to appear. Star sapphires have often
been used in men's sapphire jewelry and have even been considered
spellbinding.
The finest sapphires were once considered to come from Burma
and Kashmir. Today, those sources yield a very limited quantity
of sapphire. Much of the sapphire jewelry in today's market
comes from gemstones found in Sri Lanka.
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