Glass-Filled Ruby

the Inside Details

 

The JCK Las Vegas Show was slow. Attendance was down, and so was business. Available gem materials were pretty much status quo, with few exceptions: new Madagascar morganite from Bill and Margit Thorndal at Madagascar Imports, lower quality Tahitian pearls all throughout the show, and the new coral in black pearl from Galatea (see Pearls).

 

 

But there was one old gemstone that had many retailers talking; Glass Filled Ruby. With the ban on Burmese goods, and the proliferation of glass filled ruby, retailers are asking themselves whether or not they’d be able to recognize it if it shows up in their inventory.

 

 

So here are the helpful hints for you to be able to quickly identify this material.

 

 

 

Using darkfield illumination,

 

at moderate magnification, 10-25X,

 

look for blue flashes in the many fissures

 

throughout the stone.