One of the most popular stones used for the making of jewellery is diamonds. However, they are not the only one. Other gemstones such as ruby, emerald and sapphire are also used for making jewellery and have a charm of their own. Among these, sapphires are the most coveted gemstones only second to diamonds. Sapphire is a brilliant blue gemstone that belongs to the Corundum mineral family and is regarded as one of the five cardinal gemstones.
The word “sapphire” is derived from the ancient Greek word sappheiros and the Latin word sapphirus, both of the words meaning “blue”. The sapphire stones enjoys a rich history where it was one of the most prized gemstones in the ancient times. People in the Middle Ages believed that the sapphire protected the wearer from evil and polished sapphire jewellery was worn by people in the Roman Civilization as a mark of nobility and royalty.
Sapphires are the birthstones of the people born in September and continue to be a popular choice of gemstone today that used to make several diamond sapphire engagement rings hatton garden. Here are a few fun facts about the sapphire diamonds.
- Most people think of sapphires to be as brilliantly blue coloured gemstones, but sapphires come in other colours too. Sapphires can occur in the heavenly hues of pink, green, yellow purple and white. The colour of the sapphire is determined by the trace elements present in the internal structure of the gemstone. The classic blue sapphire typically contains iron and titanium in trace elements and the presence of chromium gives it a pinkish hue. In fact, rubies have a similar composition as that of sapphires but contain more chromium that gives them their red colour.
- Apart from being used in jewellery, sapphires are also used in making watch crystals for Swiss watches and Apple watches. Because of their durability, they are also used in making scientific and electronic instruments along with high durability windows.
- Certain sapphires are known to change colours depending upon the type of light. These colour changing sapphires appear blue in natural light and deep violet under incandescent light. The value of these sapphires are based on their strength to change colour with light.
- One of the rarest forms of sapphire is known as the padparadscha sapphire which has a very captivating pinkish-orange hue and is only found in Sri Lanka. One of the most famous jewelleries made of the padparadscha sapphire is the engagement ring of Princess Eugenie that has this beautiful sapphire as its centre stone.
- Sapphires are one of the most durable gemstones that occur on this planet. The durability of a gemstone is measured by its resistance to get scratched by a system known as the Mohs Hardness Scale. Sapphires score a whopping 9 out of 10 on this scale. The only other item that can scratch a sapphire is a diamond which scores a full 10 on the Mohs Hardness Scale. Therefore sapphires and hatton garden diamonds are an excellent choice for jewellery that will be worn every day.