Understanding This Piece
About Ruby
Ruby is corundum (the same mineral family as sapphire) colored red by trace chromium — the rarer the chromium concentration, the more vivid the red. Top-quality 'pigeon's blood' rubies from Myanmar and Mozambique command per-carat prices that exceed even premium diamonds. Ruby scores 9 on Mohs, making it well-suited for daily-wear jewelry. It's the July birthstone, the 40th-anniversary gem, and historically associated with passion, vitality, and protection in cultures from ancient India to modern Western tradition.