Ruby Spinel

Item Description

Spinels are typically found as single isolated octahedral crystals, and it's rare to find groups like this piece. This "floater" specimen is a classic Burmese "Ruby Spinel" with sharp, lustrous, octahedral faces, but it's fact that it features a pair of intergrown crystals that makes it significant. It has a lovely gemmy strong red interior color when backlit, and is a great quality crystallized example of the species. This piece was mined around 2003. The best of these specimens are simply the finest in the world for what they are. This is an example of a non-pegmatite gem mineral for which many collectors probably do not have a good specimen in their collections. Specimen weight is 1.70 carats.