Are these rubies?

[Len47]

Some advice please. My apologies for the photos, I just could not capture all the iridescent flashes coming from these stones. They are gorgeous!
This pair of "garnet" earrings are pawn shop finds. They look to be 1/2 ct tw & I'm not so sure they are garnets. Every tutorial I've found says they are rubies. Because of size I wonder if spending much money or time to find out is smart, What do you think?

 

[pearlsngems]

Do they fluoresce under UV light, or in bright sunlight? Garnets would not fluoresce. (But many rubies also don't fluoresce.)
Lab rubies also fluoresce, so that would not prove they are natural rubies.

I would just enjoy them and not worry about paying for further testing. JMO.

 

[qubitasaurus]

It's probably not going to give you an answer to your question, but do they shift colour a lot when you go into floursecent (dim night time) lighting vs sunlight?

Can you take a look at the earing posts, any marks to tell you the metal?

Unfortunately even if they turn out to be rubies or spinels (looking at the photos I would have probably said not spinels) they could still be synthetic. It is very hard to ID the stones based on photos. Even if they are natural they can also be lead glass filled, flux healed (essentially fishers/cracks get sealed with synthetic/recrystallized ruby) or treated by another invasive process. By the time you pay for the certificate to be sure you could likely have bought a 1/2 ctw pair of spinels from somewhere like Ivy New York. So it might be honestly better just to wear and enjoy them.

 

[Len47]

It's probably not going to give you an answer to your question, but do they shift colour a lot when you go into floursecent (dim night time) lighting vs sunlight?

Can you take a look at the earing posts, any marks to tell you the metal?

Unfortunately even if they turn out to be rubies or spinels (looking at the photos I would have probably said not spinels) they could still be synthetic. It is very hard to ID the stones based on photos. Even if they are natural they can also be lead glass filled, flux healed (essentially fishers/cracks get sealed with synthetic/recrystallized ruby) or treated by another invasive process. By the time you pay for the certificate to be sure you could likely have bought a 1/2 ctw pair of spinels from somewhere like Ivy New York. So it might be honestly better just to wear and enjoy them.

I think wearing them is out of the question, just not my style! Kidding aside I guess what I was really wanting to know is if there would be enough interest in something this small if they should turn out to be something good. They were in with the costume jewelry, I guess because they are not marked? Anyway I've been extremely lucky at estate sales, auctions etc.. When you have handled enough gold you get kind of feeling for it. Anyway they weren't expensive & I just acid tested them at 14k. What really sold me on them was the naturally worn smoothed metal, threads on post slightly loose from use and the six prong mounting. So I paid the $4.99 marked on the box and took a chance. Kind of figured the gold would bring that much. I have had them under sun, moon, led & floursecent they flash a dark red and a much brighter red both at the same time. Thank you much for responding.

 

[Bron357]

Fluorescence will tell you instantly if they are rubies or garnets. Garnets do not fluoresce.
However, lab created material whether spinel or ruby will also fluoresce like the natural material. Lab grown material is identical in all ways to natural except more perfect and much much much cheaper.
More than likely a pawnshop will use a Presidum gem tester to try and ID the gem, but again, these types of testers can’t distinguish between natural and lab grown.
You need a good loupe and you look for inclusions. No inclusions is 99% going to be lab grown. But wait, they now make lab grown gemstones with look- a- like inclusions.
Yep.
Not easy.

 

[qubitasaurus]

I think wearing them is out of the question, just not my style! Kidding aside I guess what I was really wanting to know is if there would be enough interest in something this small if they should turn out to be something good. They were in with the costume jewelry, I guess because they are not marked? Anyway I've been extremely lucky at estate sales, auctions etc.. When you have handled enough gold you get kind of feeling for it. Anyway they weren't expensive & I just acid tested them at 14k. What really sold me on them was the naturally worn smoothed metal, threads on post slightly loose from use and the six prong mounting. So I paid the $4.99 marked on the box and took a chance. Kind of figured the gold would bring that much. I have had them under sun, moon, led & floursecent they flash a dark red and a much brighter red both at the same time. Thank you much for responding.

Thanks I needed cheering up this morning, and that made me laugh.

I think if theyre not shifting in colour and picking up some brown tinge in different lighting, then I would conjectured that they're unlikely to be garnets. (I guess photo 3, and the gold mounts is also playing into this).

Like @Bron357 said maybe check to see if they fluoresce (my daughter sometimes plays with little uv pen lights designed for reading invisible ink, this kind of stuff costs a couple of dollars and picks up fluorescence in my stones pretty quickly). You could also pick up a loupe, if your antiquing a lot it could be fun to practice using one (get one with a little light in it if possible).

If they are untreated ruby then there probably is enough interest for it to be worth getting a proper lab report. But still the value wouldn't be huge.

Unfortunately as others have mentioned even if we establish they are rubies, there is a good chance of synthetic or heavily treated gems. As such I think you will spend money finding out if they are real, and only have some chance of profiting (and not by a huge amount) if they turn out to be real and you resell. I actually think it wont be worth it, unless you are doing it for the sake of curiosity and dont mind the outcome or money invested (be forewarned this is coming from someone who has the curiosity that killed the cat. I will literally try things I advise against just because I am curious what will happen ).