Photo Credit (CC 2.0 license): derricojewelry
Let me tell you the story of how I came to fall in love with spinel, the single most underrated gemstone in existence. Years ago I was visiting a gem dealer in downtown Boston. I was looking around his display cases when I came across a visually stunning parcel of red gemstones. When I asked the dealer what variety of jewel these gemilicious fiery red pomegranates were, he said one word: "spinel!"
I asked him how much he wanted for the smoldering red firecrackers. "Normally, I would ask $200 a carat for the stones" he responded dejectedly. "But since I can't move them easily, I'll sell any of them for $150 a carat."
Luckily, I was smart enough to realize a great deal when it smacked me in the face. I carefully looked over the grouping before choosing one of the largest, cleanest, finest specimens. A vivid, deep cherry-red, 1.01 carat spinel for one and a half C-notes? Sign me up!
Spinel is a gemstone that almost no one has heard of. Neither celebrities, nor movie stars nor super models clamor to wear spinel jewelry. And yet it is one of the most desirable gemstones in the world.
Now, I had been collecting gemstones for many years before my magical encounter at the gem dealer's shop, so I already knew about spinel. But I had never gone out of my way to buy any. They had always seemed distant somehow, like a gemological footnote.
But as I stared at that parcel of nearly flawless, cherry-red stones in front of me, I realized what I had been missing. You see, red spinel is, chemically speaking, the kissing cousin of ruby. Ruby is made from the mineral corundum, or aluminum oxide (Al2O3), while spinel is composed of magnesium-aluminum oxide (MgAl2O4). This means the two gemstones share very similar physical properties.
For example, both gems share nearly identical densities and hardnesses. Their refractive indices are similar too, resulting in both gems possessing a strong, vitreous luster. Due to their related chemical compositions, both ruby and spinel are extremely tough gemstones, making them perfect choices for jewelry that is often subjected to hard knocks or shocks, like engagement rings.
In fact, ruby and spinel are so similar to each other that throughout most of human history they were considered the same gemstone! Two of the most famous gems in the British Crown Jewels, the 170 carat Black Prince's Ruby and the 361 carat Timur Ruby, are actually spinels. However, it was not until the mid 19th century that it was definitively determined that these legendary gemstones were not, in fact, rubies at all.
Unfortunately, the realization that ruby and spinel were completely separate gem varieties didn't do anything good for the reputation of the latter gem. While ruby spiraled ever higher in terms of value and esteem, spinels came to be viewed, quite unfairly, as inferior imitations. Even today, a high quality red spinel can be purchased for only a tenth of the price of a similar quality ruby.
Natural Red & Flame Spinels for Sale on eBay
However, the price disparity between ruby and spinel is one of the great injustices of the gem trade. You see, rubies are incredibly rare, and that rarity is reflected in their price. It also means that the gem industry has explored every avenue available to artificially "enhance" lower quality rubies in an attempt to increase the supply of salable material. These treatments include dying, glass-filling, flux-filling and vanilla heat treating. It is estimated that less than 1% of rubies on the market today are completely natural, with no treatments whatsoever.
Spinels however, do not respond well to the treatments that are commonly used on rubies. Spinel also has little name recognition in the jewelry trade. These two facts mean that there is little incentive for the jewelry industry to offer spinels to their customers.
As a result, any (non-synthetic) spinels available in the marketplace today are all-natural, completely untreated stones. These gorgeous gemstones possess exactly the same color and clarity as when they were originally pulled from the ground as rough gems. This is a shockingly authentic precious stone in a modern world largely driven by industrial scale manufacturing and synthesis.
Unsurprisingly, spinel comes in a variety of colors, which tend to mirror those available in the corundum family. Cobalt, or blue spinel, is one of the most valuable types. Cobalt spinel is named after the element, cobalt, which gives the gem its intense, deep blue color. Prices for this cobalt-hued super-gem can easily run into the several hundred dollar range per carat. Very fine examples can exceed $1,000 per carat.
Natural Cobalt Blue Spinels for Sale on eBay
Red spinel, along with its lighter colored pink variants, is another color commonly encountered. There is also a unique color combination known as flame spinel, where the red is modified by a strong secondary orange hue. As discussed above, a good quality, pure red spinel can appear amazingly close to a fine ruby, except that it will 1) be completely untreated and 2) sell for a fraction of the price of a ruby.
Red spinels can have prices ranging from around $100 a carat to over $1,000 a carat for the very finest specimens. In my opinion, red spinel is one of the most undervalued gemstones out there right now.
The third color that I believe merits special mention is purple spinel. Although purple is a tremendously beautiful gemstone color, it gets no respect in the modern world. This is puzzling, considering that purple has traditionally been associated with royalty. In any case, purple spinel is nowhere to be found on today's cultural or fashion radar, meaning you can pick up intense, richly hued specimens for about $100 a carat (or occasionally even less)!
Natural Purple Spinels for Sale on eBay
There are other colors of spinels available, including greens, yellows and oranges. But in addition to being rather uncommon, these miscellaneous colors also tend to suffer from strong grayish overtones that render the stones dull and unattractive. If you are interested in buying a spinel for either jewelry purposes or as an alternative investment, I recommend sticking to the more vibrant blues, reds, pinks, and purples. Remember, the purer and more intense the color, the more valuable the spinel. But this rule of thumb only holds as long as the color doesn't become so dark that it leads to extinction, or black patches in the gem.
I find it amazing that you can pick up these natural, vivid gemstones for such ridiculously low prices. Right now you can purchase a fine blue, red or purple spinel for the same cost as a single share of Tesla ($351), Netflix ($290), Alibaba ($188) or Goldman Sachs ($268). Of course, the key difference between the two investments is that a high quality spinel will undoubtedly gain in value over the next decade, while it is quite uncertain if any of the companies I've mentioned will still be in business.
Read more thought-provoking Antique Sage gem & jewelry articles here.
-or-
Read in-depth Antique Sage investment guides here.
