From Light to Dark: Understanding the Color Grading of Ruby Stone

 The red variety of the corundum mineral has been captivating the hearts of the old as well as the younger generation ever since they have been discovered on this planet. Tagged as one of the four most precious stones, it has been ruling the price charts along with diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds. 

The quality grading of any gemstone is categorized on the basis of 4Cs: Color, Clarity, Cut, and Carat. Talking about the first C, the color of any gemstone is determined on the basis of its hue, tone, and saturation. Hue defines the actual primary and secondary colors, tone defines its lightness or darkness, and saturation defines the degree of intensity of the color. In the section below, we will be discussing the color grading scheme of the ruby stone at length which will help you in identifying the best color of the ruby stone.

Determining the True Hues of the Ruby

The color of the ruby stone is graded on the basis of different ranks or color schemes, such as dark red, deep red, vivid red, strong red, pinkish red, and purplish red. While in most cases, ruby is primarily red in color, it may also exhibit secondary hues like orange or purple. However, as the stones become more orangish or purplish, they start losing their value and become more orange, purple, or pink sapphires than rubies. 

A huge variety of fine rubies display red color accompanied by a purplish tinge. The red-colored stones that can fluoresce and those with needle-like rutile silk inclusions capable of reflecting and scattering light also possess great value.

1. Pigeon Blood: It is of rare quality with skyrocketing prices for its perfectly blended richest red color and vivid saturation.

2. Deep: It exhibits slightly overly saturated shades of intense red color.

3. Medium: It is a mixture of more red and less purplish or pinkish hues.

4. Purplish: It is more purplish and less reddish.

5. Pinkish: It is more pinkish and less reddish.

Determining the Tone of the stone

The tone is concerned with the darkness or the lightness of the hue which directly influences its market value. With the medium to medium-dark ones being the finest, the extremely lighter ones are rather called pink or purple varieties of sapphires while the extremely darker ones are obscure. As we look at the ruby varieties extracted from different countries, a huge difference can be found in their tones with some being darker while the others being lighter than the rest.

Determining the Saturation of the stone

It is the measure of how strong or intense the color of the stone appears. The saturation level could range from vivid, strong, fair, and medium to weak. In the case of rubies, the stones with high levels of saturation are the ones with more chromium present in them. Such stones may display rich hues without being too dark-toned while those with low saturation are often brownish-red in appearance. Hence, those with vivid or strong saturation levels are the ones that are valued the highest.

Conclusion

All the different colors of the ruby stone command different prices which is evident from the fact that it affects the final market price of the stone by at least 50%. If you are about to invest in this gem-of-a-kind stone then do check out GemsNY’s official website for more details on its color grading and explore mesmerizing ruby jewelry designs.