Alexandrite? Mystery Stone

[rareonesee]

Hello, I bought this ring years ago. It is set in platinum and diamonds. The middle stone I have not had tested. It was sold to me as a spinel but the seller was not sure. I thought it was an interesting blue green in daytime almost like a peacock color. When I wore it some I realized it turns colors!! At night time it is a blue like lavandar. Fairly deep. I am at my wits end trying to figure out what I have. I do see some slight dark specks in the stone but not too many. It is 9mm and a show stopper. I am wondering does any one know what this is? Could it be a real alexandrite or a synthetic? A color change stone of some other kind? I have a photo of it at night. Any help/advice will be appreciated. It is fun to know what you think. K

 

[Treenbean]

Spinels can color shift. Is there any reason to not believe the vendor that you bought it from? The setting is pretty, do you have more pics?

 

[chrono]

Blue green to lavender/blue is definitely not alexandrite. It could well be spinel or even synthetic spinel. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough information to go by to even hazard a guess.

 

[LD]

Yep - definitely not an alex. Could be a spinel that just colour shifts. If it was sold as a spinel a few years ago, the chances are it IS a spinel because they were not like sapphires for example, that you could easily find. Nowadays, you see more of them and there's really been a resurrgence in their popularity I think.

 

[Deia]

I think synthetic alexandrite shifts like that, so maybe it's one of those. Whatever it is, it's a pretty ring

 

[LD]

I meant to say, Alexandrite is very rarely cut as a round and to find one in 9mm (which is around 3-4ct) is exceptionally rare. You would KNOW if this were an Alexandrite because one of that size and eye clean would cost an enormous amount of money!

 

[diamondringlover]

I think synthetic alexandrite shifts like that, so maybe it's one of those. Whatever it is, it's a pretty ring

I have a synthetic alexandrite ring and it does not shift to those colors, mine is a dark royal purple with red flashes when in indoor lighting and then it changes to a teal/green color with purple flashes when outdoors...its a pretty amazing change...this ring is very pretty either way

 

[rareonesee]

Thanks I will post more. Love your dog!! :O)

 

[rareonesee]

Here is an outside shot of the stone. Antique dealer, "thought" it might be a spinel. He did not say there was any color change to the stone.

 

[rareonesee]

Out side.

 

[rareonesee]

more pictures

 

[rareonesee]

Hello, I bought this ring years ago. It is set in platinum and diamonds. The middle stone I have not had tested. It was sold to me as a spinel but the seller was not sure. I thought it was an interesting blue green in daytime almost like a peacock color. When I wore it some I realized it turns colors!! At night time it is a blue like lavandar. Fairly deep. I am at my wits end trying to figure out what I have. I do see some slight dark specks in the stone but not too many. It is 9mm and a show stopper. I am wondering does any one know what this is? Could it be a real alexandrite or a synthetic? A color change stone of some other kind? I have a photo of it at night. Any help/advice will be appreciated. It is fun to know what you think. K

**More pictures down below in the replies. I am just getting used to this. Thanks for any replys you have made. I truly appreciate it. :O)

 

[Treenbean]

If it's a spinel, it's a very nice spinel. Any markings on the ring? Looks precision cut, how old did the dealer say the ring was? Is there a chip by the 11 o'clock prong in the pics?

 

[minousbijoux]

Whatever it is, I love the cut and that color, almost teal grey blue on my monitor, is one of my favorites

 

[T L]

Here is an outside shot of the stone. Antique dealer, "thought" it might be a spinel. He did not say there was any color change to the stone.

Well, I've never seen a color shift spinel change to blue/green peacock color.

 

[rareonesee]

If it's a spinel, it's a very nice spinel. Any markings on the ring? Looks precision cut, how old did the dealer say the ring was? Is there a chip by the 11 o'clock prong in the pics?

They said it was probably from the 20's. It is really fooling me because usually I can tell right off the bat if a stone is fake. This one is going to have be appraised I think. The inside band has 900 platinum inside. The diamonds are real. There is no chip on the stone. Love you cute dog picture!

 

[LD]

If it's a spinel, it's a very nice spinel. Any markings on the ring? Looks precision cut, how old did the dealer say the ring was? Is there a chip by the 11 o'clock prong in the pics?

They said it was probably from the 20's. It is really fooling me because usually I can tell right off the bat if a stone is fake. This one is going to have be appraised I think. The inside band has 900 platinum inside. The diamonds are real. There is no chip on the stone. Love you cute dog picture!

Okay, I may be totally wrong here but that doesn't look like a 1920s setting. It looks much more modern than that. Let's give it the benefit of the doubt though and assume it is that old, it was very very common to put synthetic corundum in rings of that era. You wouldn't be able to tell if they were "fake" because some of them look incredibly good. To be honest, you probably need to take the ring to a very good jeweller to see if they can do an RI on it. That should rule out a lot of gems and help to narrow it down. You most definitely need some tests run on it though - not just somebody looking at it. Good luck!

 

[Amber St. Clare]

Whatever it is you have a beautiful ring!

 

[rareonesee]

We will have to see. I am going to get it appraised in a couple weeks and will post the findings. It is an old setting. Thanks for all the posts.