Spinel's Extraordinary History in the World's Crown Jewels
The Black Prince's Ruby — the magnificent 170-carat red stone set at the front of the Imperial State Crown of Great Britain, worn at coronations for centuries — is not a ruby. It never was. It is a spinel. So is the Timur Ruby, a 361-carat stone inscribed with the names of the Mughal emperors who owned it, now in the British Royal Collection. And the great "rubies" of the medieval Persian and Chinese courts? Spinels, almost certainly.
For centuries, gemmology lacked the tools to distinguish spinel from corundum. Both minerals occur in the same gem gravels of Mogok, Myanmar — mined side by side in the same legendary valley that has produced the world's finest rubies for over a thousand years. Both can display the same deep, glowing red. Both were called "balas rubies" — a term derived from Badakhshan, the ancient trading region of Afghanistan where Mogok stones were marketed to the great empires of Asia and Europe.
It was not until modern gemmology — and eventually the spectroscope — that spinel and ruby were properly separated. What emerged from that separation was the recognition that spinel deserved its own identity entirely. Far from being a lesser stone, spinel possesses qualities that rubies frequently lack: near-universal freedom from treatment, exceptional toughness with no cleavage, and a single-refractive optical character that gives it a clean, pure brilliance of its own.
Sara carries red, pink, lavender, and grey spinels — each stone chosen personally for colour, clarity, and character. Book an appointment in Kiama.
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Sara's personally-sourced spinels — each selected for vivid, saturated colour and natural, unheated character that places them among the most honest gems in the market.
Red, Pink, Blue, Lavender — and the Mogok Valley
Spinel's colour range is broader than most people realise. While red and hot pink remain the most celebrated and commercially valuable varieties, spinel also occurs in vivid blue and violet-blue (coloured by cobalt — "cobalt spinel"), in cool blue-grey, in delicate lavender and mauve, in orange, and in near-black. Each colour has its own origin story and collector following.
The most prized red and pink spinels come from the Mogok Stone Tract of Myanmar — the same valley that produces the world's finest Burmese rubies. Mogok spinel can display a saturated, slightly fluorescent red that rivals the very best rubies in intensity, and because spinel is almost never heated or treated in any way, these stones carry an integrity of origin that is increasingly rare in the coloured stone market. Fine Mogok red spinels are now fetching record prices at international auction.
Sri Lanka (Ceylon) is the second major source, producing a wide range of colours including the famous "flame" orange-red spinels and beautiful blue and lavender varieties. Tanzania, Vietnam's Luc Yen district, and Tajikistan also produce notable spinels. For clients at Sara's Kiama studio, understanding the origin story of a spinel — and how that origin relates to its colour and treatment history — is part of what makes the selection process genuinely exciting.
Left: Spinel stacker rings in rose and white gold — showcasing the gem's versatility across a colour palette. Right: A bespoke commission featuring a sophisticated grey spinel, one of Sara's most contemporary stone selections.
Why Gemmologists Love Spinel
Among qualified gemmologists and experienced jewellery designers, spinel occupies a special place. Its physical properties make it almost ideally suited to jewellery: a hardness of 8 on the Mohs scale (harder than all coloured stones except chrysoberyl, sapphire, and diamond), a cubic crystal structure with no cleavage — meaning it does not split along any plane and resists chipping and cracking exceptionally well — and a singly refractive optical character that produces a clean, undisturbed brilliance.
For coloured stone engagement rings, spinel's toughness is a genuine selling point. It can be set in claw, bezel, or channel configurations without the anxiety that attends softer or more fragile stones. Red and pink spinels suit yellow or rose gold superbly; blue and lavender spinels are striking in platinum or white gold. Sara's studio has produced spinel solitaire rings, halo designs, three-stone pieces, and stacking rings — each one designed around the individual stone's character.
One of spinel's most compelling attributes for jewellery clients is its treatment status. While virtually all rubies on the market have been heat-treated, and many have been glass-filled, the vast majority of spinels are entirely untreated — their colour is precisely as nature produced it. For a client who values integrity of origin and authenticity of colour, this is significant. Sara sources spinels with full treatment disclosure and can provide documentation for any stone in her collection. Remodelling existing spinel jewellery is also a popular commission — inherited stones given new life in contemporary settings.
A bespoke spinel and diamond dress ring in rose and white gold — one of Sara's signature commissions, pairing the warmth of rose gold with the vivid depth of a hand-selected spinel.
Spinel in the Current Market
Spinel has experienced a remarkable reappraisal over the past two decades. As collectors and jewellery designers — led by the major auction houses — began recognising fine spinel on its own terms rather than as a ruby substitute, prices for top-quality Mogok red and hot pink spinels have risen dramatically. A fine unheated Burmese red spinel above three carats now commands prices that rival comparable ruby at auction.
The broader spinel market, however, remains less expensive than equivalent ruby or sapphire — a situation that gemmologists consider a significant opportunity. A 2ct blue-grey spinel of exceptional clarity, or a 1.5ct vivid pink from Mogok, represents exceptional quality at a price point that a comparable Burmese ruby or Ceylon sapphire would not. For clients across the NSW South Coast, Wollongong, and Sydney who want something genuinely rare and beautiful without paying the name premium of the "Big Three" coloured stones, spinel is often the answer.
Spinel was added as an official birthstone for August by the American Gem Trade Association in 2016, giving it a formal calendar position alongside peridot and sardonyx. It is also increasingly recommended as an alternative to ruby for July birthdays, given the visual similarity of the finest red spinels to the finest Burmese rubies.
