Pink Spinel Price

[jackiely]

A friend of mine wears a ring mounted with a beautiful pink spinel, the color is a little bit reddish. I can see the stone flashes on my kitchen table when it was a very late afternoon. Any idea about the price of a fine natural spinel of 2.80 approx. like this?

Jackie

 

[valeria101]

Don't know... how saturated the deep pink color was (i.e. lively or sleepy / smokey a bit) would make a world of difference - from $100 to $1000 / carat. Clarity does to - spinels are expected to be clean - although imperfections are somewhat excused for the finest color.

Near 3 cts is not tremendously large - definitely not as rare as it is for rubies.

Pictures are not a great way to share info about the color of precious stones ... but this is as much as I can do online.


Your description would fit something like THIS in my mind: better than average saturation and a nice cut, reddish-pink. The color description should be more relevant than the picture.

It is a safer bet to compare different qualities from the same seller, because prices depend allot of who'se selling. You are not going to get the same from some hot spot in NYC as from a website of a dealer from the other side of the earth. Although surely, there are no precious stones mined in NYC and sooner or later, the same merchandise climb up the distribution chain

Hope some of this helps.

 

[jackiely]

Thanks for the hints, Ana. I prefer straight pink color, less on purple amethyst color.

Jackie

 

[valeria101]

Date: 3/12/2006 12:28:40 PM
Author: jackiely

Thanks for the hints, Ana. I prefer straight pink color, less on purple amethyst color.

That was just meant as a price ref... You are right that amethyst-like purple would be less expensive. But a purplish hint over red or pink is not... for whatever reason.

I was wondering how reddish was the stone you saw: some colors between ''pink'' and ''red'' are so beautiful! Be it sapphire or spinel.

Don''t know how much justice the picture does this this, but the description of ''fully saturated color'' from a seller who doesn''t spend those words easily give allot to hope for. I think the price reflects the relatively large size (spread) and fine cut, as much as the size (3 cts).


A couple of lighter pink and peach colored brothers (second and third in the row below) don''t look any worse to me!

 

[colorchange]

Hi,
Straight pink is quite expensive (more than peach or violet) and rarely found, violetish is much more often encountered.
I often get some in the 2-2.5 Ct range in straight pink, not so often above 3 Ct and very rarely above 4Ct
The pCt price changes very very fast between 2 Ct and 4 Ct !

Best straight pink will be from Mogok, Burma, or even better Namya, Burma.

What is even rarer is that the spinel be as nice in daylight and sunlight.

 

[valeria101]

Somewhere else

... wouldn't feel bad separating quality & origin as two totally unrelated beasts any day.

Mahenghe (Tanzania) and the Kuch-i-lal area in Pamir spell pink spinel just as nicely. To me at least. Vietnam... and what not. How many precious stones come with certain origin ID anyway...

How do you guys feel about odd shapes?

LINK

 

[colorchange]

It is not unrelated, I have never seen any african spinel the quality of the finest Namya pink spinels, just like I have never seen a Madagascar sapphire the quuality of the finest Mogok... (some afgani spinels are very very too indeed)
There are exceptions of course but it is not unrelated especially in spinels (while I wouldn''t say the same about sapphires, as I have seen fine sapphires from all over the world).

I will repeat that if any good spinel is not from Burma, the quality and origin are very correlated.

I don''t like these odd shapes and do not carry any, I do prefer to carry rough that will be tailor cut.

 

[elmo]

If your budget extends into the $1000/carat range, Richard Wise has a gorgeous 5 carat vivid pink cushion on his website, perfectly cut, only a hint of violet. I go back and look at that one every now and then. Also, from Antoine Hoang's website, it appears that Gary Dutton here is now rep'ing Antoine's goods from Vietnam...those might tend towards red/orange more than violet.

(When it's well cut with good color, I really like spinel.)

 

[jackiely]

Thank you very much for your help. Ana, the spinel from acstones has a nice color but a bit sleepy I think. Colorchange, I don't mind about the origin as long as the stone is beautiful and fits in my wallet.

I have read through Antoine's website, interesting site. I have contacted him already and found out that he has a homebase in Westminster CA, not very far from Anaheim where I live. Apparently he is in the US for a while, I will try to see what he has in pink stones.

Jackie

 

[colorchange]

I don't care either about the origin as long as two stones look the same, but all I said is that there are some top gems that are found almost exclusively in some places.
Unfortunately the beauty of a top Namya spinel isn't something you can see on a computer screen : it has an extremely strong fluorescence that you'll never appreciate without seeing it in person.
It's just like a straight red Mogok ruby that I have and a Ceylon one of the same color, I did put both in a small plastic bag at the bank's safe, both were looking a little like, you would not understand why one was worth 3x the other.
Once outdoor, one just shines soooo much more !!!!



A spinel is the most difficult gem to photograph, I have one great straight pink spinel (2.2 Ct) that I can just not get a nice photo of without retouching it while I also have some brownish spinel that look a wonderfull red in photo.
Thake great care of the honnesty of the seller if you buy a spinel online, you should ask for an honnest description of the quality.


P.S. Please do not believe that I'm trying to sell you some Namya spinel, I don't cary any

(too expensive for my clients) just Mogok and Ceylon ones.

 

[rubydick]

CC,

Your message highlights one of the great paradoxes of spinel. I say this as a great lover of this gem, but, when compared with ruby, spinel simply does not hold its color to the same degree. Spinel is hyper light sensitive. I worship this lass, but maintain enough perspective to separate infatuation from mere attraction.

Truth be told, there is a reason ruby is more valuable than spinel. And it's got nothing to do with hardness or RI. Ruby is simply prettier to more people under most light sources.

 

[jackiely]

I dream to own this stone, WOW for a red spinel of 11 carats.

 

[colorchange]

Date: 3/13/2006 11:18:31 PM
Author: Richard Hughes
CC,

Your message highlights one of the great paradoxes of spinel. I say this as a great lover of this gem, but, when compared with ruby, spinel simply does not hold its color to the same degree. Spinel is hyper light sensitive. I worship this lass, but maintain enough perspective to separate infatuation from mere attraction.

Truth be told, there is a reason ruby is more valuable than spinel. And it''s got nothing to do with hardness or RI. Ruby is simply prettier to more people under most light sources.

Yes that''s a serious problem with spinel.
Those that hold the best compared to sapphires and rubies are finest pink spinels, but never will a red or blue spinel approach the quality of a fine sapphire or ruby.
Another problem with spinels is that, to me, they lack some personality, they may be defined almost completely with their color and clarity rating it''s as sad as a diamond on this part, while just any very fine sapphire or ruby is special.

 

[jackiely]

Hello everyone, we met Antoine in person and was able to see two pink stones of him and several red spinels. I like one pink stone nearly 3 carats but my husband prefers the red spinels (after all it is his money

). But seriously I start considering if I should go for a strong red spinel. Many of the stones have AGTA or AGL certificates. I know a bit about AGTA but nothing about AGL, is it good? Did someone have buying experience with Antoine from KingdomOfRedSpinels.com?

Jackie

 

[MJO]

I prefer AGL certs They ussually give more information than the AGTA cert.

Maurice

 

[valeria101]

Date: 3/16/2006 12:01:30 PM
Author: jackiely

Hello everyone, we met Antoine in person and was able to see two pink stones of him and several red spinels. I like one pink stone nearly 3 carats but my husband prefers the red spinels ...

Don''t tell me the choice is between the 3 cts pink and the 5 cts red listed online now

That wouldn''t be too hard because the red one seems to be so lively... Well, as much as possible to see like this. Between a hot pink one and a dark, rusty red rock... I''d scream and kick for the pink. But not between those two

Anyway, spinel seems young and fresh to me relative to the stately sapphire & ruby color counterparts. What a wonderful dilemma to have choosing between two fine spinels!

 

[jackiely]

Ana, thanks for explaining my wonderful dilemma

. It is exactly that. Very kind of him, we get the two stones with us for a short period of time to look at at different lights of the day and show around to friends and to the appraiser. Thanks Elmo for the hint!

Jackie