Rumiyuq
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2020
- Messages
- 2
So... hi! 
I have found this forum trying to figure out whether a ring I have has a natural alexandrite in it. Spoiler alert: after reading everything about alexandrite and its imitations (this thread rocks!!), I think it's vanadium laced corundum... but if you have any other ideas, please do share them.
So it's basically violet, but with predominantly blueish hues in "cold" light, and very rich pinkish purple in "warm" light. I have fiddled with white balance taking these two pictures and slightly edited them in GIMP to make the colors more like human eye sees them:
In UV light (I don't know if it's short or long wave - it's the kind that comes in cheap UV flashlights), it has an extremely faint red/fuchsia fluorescence. It is slightly more visible in person than on the photo below (my favorite ruby is on the right for comparison) - but you can sort of see the reflection of the dim fluorescence on the gold setting that is in the shadow of the gem in question:
(Note to self: UV light really picks up dust and stuck fibers!)
The gem has no inclusions whatsoever. (Whatever you think you see on the pictures above, that's dust and some surface damage). Examining it under 16x magnification, I clearly saw parallel striation-like lines that go perpendicularly to the main "axis" of the stone. However, looking very closely, the striations are not inside of the gem but on the surface, only on one side, the pointy side that is hidden underneath.
Looking at the ring from the back, it seems that that under-side was painted with something (lines seem to be from a brush or something), and it almost looks like glass beads coated with metallic shine. Is that the vanadium lacing coating? I'm pretty sure it's not glass because the ring has been worn extensively over several decades and doesn't have much damage, suggesting something harder than 7 on the Mohs' scale. (I won't scratch it with a nail to confirm, though).
Plus, what sort of a heartless crook of a jeweler would set glass in 18K gold????(The gem was purchased in late 1960's as an "amethyst," the jeweler did not mention color changing properties but rather pointed at one of these large amethyst half-geodes, implying it came from something like that. It was in Peru, there is no paperwork/appraisals).
It's was difficult to capture the striations, but you can see them on the blue facet on the right. All of the long facets on the inner side of the ring have them, though.
So... what do you all think? Synthetic crap? Or is there a 0.0001% chance that I actually have something valuable here?
When I took the ring outside for the natural light photo shoot, I had an unexpected visitor, who has been drooling all over the ring, so I take his/her appraisal was that it was something good.
I have found this forum trying to figure out whether a ring I have has a natural alexandrite in it. Spoiler alert: after reading everything about alexandrite and its imitations (this thread rocks!!), I think it's vanadium laced corundum... but if you have any other ideas, please do share them.
So it's basically violet, but with predominantly blueish hues in "cold" light, and very rich pinkish purple in "warm" light. I have fiddled with white balance taking these two pictures and slightly edited them in GIMP to make the colors more like human eye sees them:
In UV light (I don't know if it's short or long wave - it's the kind that comes in cheap UV flashlights), it has an extremely faint red/fuchsia fluorescence. It is slightly more visible in person than on the photo below (my favorite ruby is on the right for comparison) - but you can sort of see the reflection of the dim fluorescence on the gold setting that is in the shadow of the gem in question:
(Note to self: UV light really picks up dust and stuck fibers!)
The gem has no inclusions whatsoever. (Whatever you think you see on the pictures above, that's dust and some surface damage). Examining it under 16x magnification, I clearly saw parallel striation-like lines that go perpendicularly to the main "axis" of the stone. However, looking very closely, the striations are not inside of the gem but on the surface, only on one side, the pointy side that is hidden underneath.
Looking at the ring from the back, it seems that that under-side was painted with something (lines seem to be from a brush or something), and it almost looks like glass beads coated with metallic shine.
Is that the vanadium lacing coating? I'm pretty sure it's not glass because the ring has been worn extensively over several decades and doesn't have much damage, suggesting something harder than 7 on the Mohs' scale. (I won't scratch it with a nail to confirm, though).Plus, what sort of a heartless crook of a jeweler would set glass in 18K gold????
(The gem was purchased in late 1960's as an "amethyst," the jeweler did not mention color changing properties but rather pointed at one of these large amethyst half-geodes, implying it came from something like that. It was in Peru, there is no paperwork/appraisals).It's was difficult to capture the striations, but you can see them on the blue facet on the right. All of the long facets on the inner side of the ring have them, though.
So... what do you all think? Synthetic crap? Or is there a 0.0001% chance that I actually have something valuable here?
When I took the ring outside for the natural light photo shoot, I had an unexpected visitor, who has been drooling all over the ring, so I take his/her appraisal was that it was something good.
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