Hello Gem World,
I am new to GEM World and IGS Forum.
One of my uncles from Myanmar introduced me Ruby miner and I acquired small rough rubies from Namya, Myanmar (Burma) , a few years ago.
Some of rough rubies are 1 carat to 2.2 carat in size, mostly are below 1 carat.
I have cut 4 pieces and made earing, pendant and rings for my wife for the first time. I made certificate for the ruby pendant in Singapore.
I would like to have your suggestions/advice if it is good for long term investment?
Perhaps, how do I find buyer for these rough rubies?
(Photos attached)
Any suggestions are highly appreciated.
Min Min
One of our Forum members notified the moderators that the QR code in the gem report in the photo redirects you to a domain name sale site. Although the gem lab named on the report appears to still be in business, it’s possible their website URL has simply expired. On the other hand, the URL might be redirected by malicious actors as part of a “phishing” attempt. Readers beware of any QR codes you find online (or elsewhere). @MIN_MIN , if you dealt with this Singapore gem lab personally, you’re in the best position to judge if they are a reputable business. Again, it’s possible their business URL has simply expired.
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Thank you for your feedback .
Yes, the Big Lab Research Gem Testing Lab is still in business .
I have informed Big Lab Research Gem Testing Lab about it and he confirmed that it’s expired and he needs to renew it.
Could anyone recommend me any reputable and trusted Gem Lab in Singapore ? Thanks
Hello Min Min and everyone.
Looking at the oval shape stone in your hand, it appears to me (nice color and good transparency by the way) that it deserves a better (different?) cut…more facets leading to more brilliance would cause it to be much more beautiful, in my opinion.
Regards
Geio
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Hello Geio , thank you for your suggestion. I will feedback it to Faceter .
The original rough ruby shape was flat with 1.82 carat in weight . I guess, he tried to cut and maintain the weight above 1 carat .
I fully endorse the comment from geiofontana. Many cutters at the gemfields try for the largest table facet without considering the optimum angles and facets for overall brilliance. I have experienced this problem with some small zircons I have had cut in Thailand. The cutters sacrifice brilliance for size not realising that many of their stones finish up with a dead fish eye effect. The weight loss in cutting a deeper and more brilliant stone is minor compared to the gain in brilliance.
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Hello Ivan , thanks for sharing .
Now I’ve learned what I need to be mindful next cutting.
Rule #2 in any investment: don’t get into anything you do not completely understand.
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Hello Mike , Thank you for your advice.
Hi, this is probably way more of an answer than you were looking for but it takes a bit of a wind-up for it to make sense (I also hope it’s interesting to others, it’s a passion of mine)…
I collect very ancient gemstones, that is to say, gemstones that were cut in ancient times, and I have a bunch of rubies (and other stones) from Myanmar, South India, Sri Lanka, Bactria (the blanket term often used to describe the hugely important ancient region from roughly Turkmenistan to northeastern Iran), Sumatra, and a bunch of other ancient regions in that part of the world. It’s not well researched, but very ancient (neolithic at least) maritime and land-based trade routes existed connecting all of those places with Mesopotamia, and then stretching along the Arabian/Red Sea coasts and into Southern Egypt (the Lake Berneke region was the main sea port, which was technically not “Egyptian”, but instead populated by other cultures. I am willing to bet that quite a few of those rubies are of this era, but the cuts are not used today and are largely unrecognized as such. There is a small body of recurring motifs that manifest in the cuts broadly/ubiquitously from ancient times that are still trading hands to this day. The ancient cuts don’t hold meaning anymore, but I like them as-is (I don’t further cut or polish). That said, the locals in many of the regions (locals in the primary gemstone regions of Burma for sure), they know all about them. I am not a dealer, just a collector, and so to me stones like this have a lot of value, but what i like about them would not translate into current values. I can’t comment on the market value or viability of reselling, but if you are into ancient stuff and the price is right, I’d pick up a few for sure. One day I’ll write a paper on this and share detail of the motifs I mentioned earlier (i’ve cataloged them pretty extensively), but if this kind of thing interests you and you want me to share a couple signature features, PM or email me and I will be happy to share.
Sorry about long reply, I’m new to the forum and I read some really great posts/replies and have already learned a ton, so i figure i’d try and “give back” by sharing some stuff ai know a little bit about.
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Hi Paul , it’s interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Hello Paul. I also have an interest in ancient gemstones that started with reading Pliny the Elder’s publication on gemstones. Subsequent authors and more particularly modern writers tend to dismiss the ancients as ignorant and using mainly color as a guide to identification. I am sure the ancient craftsman had other tests but which were kept secret in trade guilds. In particular I am interested in ancient gem intaglios and carvings because ancient craftsman would have developed means of quickly distinguishing gems that would carve and those that don’t eg hessonite versus zircon.
Hi, thank for the reply. You may want to also read The Periplus of the Erythraen Sea. It’s written by an unknown trader and it seems more descriptive, since it’s more of a traders journal and maybe less culturally biased than Pliny stops at about the Indian subcontinent, as do most surviving texts, but Periplus at least eludes to this whole other world world east of modern day Sri Lank. I have no doubt that the world is at least as sophisticated (probably more so) as the routes from India to Egypt way before Pliny’s time. So music textual evidence was lost or destroyed (mostly the later), and so little archeology has been done south of the equator that that part of ancient history would be a swag without the emerging genetic record. That’s getting really interesting as the tech/methods improve; net net; it’s diverged from the archeological record in a big way, the two are no longer compatible.
If you think about it, if you go back far enough all that survived 5000 or
50000 years are beads, gemstones, caves, and rock shelters, and there are way more of the first two than the later two, and they are not hard to find. That is worth looking into, IMHO.
