Spinel

Spinel usually occurs in various shades of red, pink, orange, lavender, blue, purple, brown, grey and black. Some spinels are among the most famous gemstones: Among them is the Black Prince's Ruby and the 'Timur ruby' in the British Crown Jewels, and the 'cote de Bretagne' formerly from the French Crown jewels. The 'Samarian Spinel' is the largest known spinel in the world, weighing 500 carats (100 g). The transparent red spinels were formerly called spinel-rubies or balas-rubies. In the past, before the arrival of modern science, spinels and rubies were equally known as 'rubies'. After the 18th century the word 'ruby' was only used for the red gem variety of the mineral corundum and the word 'spinel' became used. Spinel is thought to protect the owner from harm, to reconcile differences, and to soothe away sadness. Spinel is a durable gemstone that is perfect for all jewelry uses.

NOTE: Stones on this page were photographed under 5000 Kelvin "daylight" lighting.
For maximum color accuracy, descriptions were made in north-facing natural daylight,
indoors, between 11am-2pm, at 32.89°N latitude.

COLOR: Wherever possible, a similar Pantone Color Card number has been used, NOT the Pantone colors online,
which necessarily use RGB approximations, are grayer, and not at all the same.
Since color is so subjective to lighting conditions, and light is in turn subjective to location,
descriptions and pictures are intended to give a general idea of actual color.
To know what these stones really look like, there is no substitute for seeing them in person.