Hi everyone,
I have just seen an odd specimen of sapphire and need some advice.
Blue in daylight and red under UV. Help?
Sincerely,
Ashmores
1 Like
Ashmores,
That is a dramatic change and a beautiful red color. I have seen natural sapphire with red fluorescence under LW uv light. SW uv light might fluoresce yellowish green. Chalky blue or yellowish green could indicate heat treatment. But the red is natural.
1 Like
Jpe206, thanks for the input. This was the only specimen I’ve ever seen transition so strongly, so I wasn’t sure what that might mean. Thank goodness it’s probably natural!
WOW!
That is what we call, a critter of another world. Is it a color change Sapphire on steroids? Is it an Alexandrite gone wild? I must say that it is unique and beautiful. I would love to see more of those stones and where did that on come from?
All the best.
Otter
2 Likes
Hi Otter,
It only fluoresces under UV, though. It would be amazing if that were its daylight colour!
Origin unknown for now (found it looking through a friend’s old collection). Have sent it for expert appraisal so will keep you all updated when I find out.
2 Likes
Synthetic spinel
2 Likes
Hello Ashmores,
I agree with most of the replies. Corundum stones(variety) are one of my favorite gemstones, and it looks like a beautiful Sapphire, very nice blue and I see some inclusions in the bottom of picture? But really can’t tell 100%? Could be so kind of treatment, if you look the bottom half looks a little pinkish under UV, and in day light the blue looks a little white inside, just looking at the picture I can’t tell if it is Natural Sapphire or synthetic? But I would say it does look like a Natural Sapphire around 4 to 6 carats? I hope it is real? Good Luck
1 Like
Thank you to everyone for your input! It’s just a tiny little 1-carat stone but I love it and really hope it’s not a synthetic.
It’s been independently appraised by two GIA-certified gemologists in NZ, and both tell me it is a sapphire. So it’s either a really good fake and these two people can’t do their job… or it’s a natural sapphire. There are silky inclusions, apparently.
Hi if there are silk/rutile inclusions then it will be natural, should be able to see these with a 10 X lens I would think, unless very small microscopic,
1 Like
Yes, there are silky inclusions, and it’s been inspected by two GIA gemologists.
Presence of sufficient chromium in natural blue sapphires can induce a red reaction to UV as demonstrated in this 5ct natural Kashmir sapphire shown under 365nm torch.
They now make Zanderite in differant colors. Mine turns from pink to green. I looked it up thru jtv and saw they now have different colors for other color change gems. Also, my stones don’t
Fluoresce much.
So this stone through JTV is a synthetic stone? I’ve never trusted those people for some reason.
Nice Jeffery Bergman
JTV goes above-and-beyond to clearly and accurately represent natural gems vs treated gems vs man made gems. JTV’s description of Zandrite™ includes the following statements:
“man-made stone”
“chemically doped variety of glass”
“A scientist was the first to create, then realize the potential of this stunning gem”
“Gemstone Composition - Lab Created”
“Material Composition - Lab Created”
2 Likes