• Sapphires, commonly thought of as blue, actually come in a variety of colors.
• Like rubies, sapphires are comprised of corundum. Various trace elements give rubies and sapphire their color.
• When corundum has trace elements of iron and titanium the stone is blue. Trace chromium elements give pink sapphires and rubies their color.
• Pure corundum, without any trace elements, is clear.
• Corundum can show a phenomenon called asterism, or the star effect. This phenomenon usually appears as a six-ray star pattern across a cabochon-cut stone’s curved surface. The star effect can be seen in Ruby or any color of sapphire, and it arises from white light reflecting from numerous tiny, oriented needle-like inclusions.
• Sapphire is pleochroic, displaying a lighter and more intense color when viewed at different angles. Some pleochroic sapphire is blue when viewed at one angle, and purple at a different angle.
• Some sapphires are multicolored due to color zoning. Color zoning occurs when different trace elements are present during the formation of the stone creating growth layers of different colors.
• Sapphire is rated a 9 on the Mohs scale of hardness, the only stone harder than a sapphire is a diamond, which is rated a 10.
• Sapphire was first synthesized in 1902. The process of creating synthetic sapphire is known as the Verneuil process. It is difficult to distinguish between natural and synthetic sapphires under normal lighting. Under a black light, however, synthetic sapphires and rubies will strongly fluoresce and natural stones will not.
• Sapphire is usually heat treated to intensify the blue color, as well as remove inclusions to increase clarity.
• The word “sapphire” comes from the Latin sapphirus and Greek sappheiros, meaning “blue stone,” though those words may have originally referred to lapis lazuli
• In 1981 Prince Charles gave a blue sapphire engagement ring to Lady Diana Spencer and in 2010 Prince Charles’ and Princess Diana’s son, Prince William, gave the same ring to Catherine “Kate” Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge.
• Sapphire is the birthstone for September

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