iLander
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- May 23, 2010
- Messages
- 6,731
We were recently in New York and I dropped off my sapphire ring for analysis by AGL, which took over 3 weeks. This is the sapphire that I purchased from GemRite a couple of years ago, and it was sold to me as unheated and untreated. I took John's word for it.
But I started to worry about the stone, because it was acting strangely. It flashes a bunch of different colors: green, red, blue, white, all in different lights. I started to think that maybe it was a synthetic of some kind. Even on PS I hadn't heard of sapphires flashing various colors. If yours do that, please tell me about it.
Then I started to see a bunch of purple to blue shift garnets. I saw the inclusions in the crown (see pic), but synthetics sometimes have fake inclusions. More worrying.
So, for $75 (gem brief, mounted stone), I decided to find out for sure. If you've never been in their building, it is VERY high security. Your license is scanned by an armed guard in the lobby (long line for that!), you take a special "layman's" elevator, and every office door (it's a maze!), on every floor, is locked tight. The AGL receptionist buzzes you into a vestibule, and if there is another customer at the desk, you are locked in the vestibule. Only when the customer is gone will you be buzzed again, to approach the desk. It's quite a production! I'm convinced the going down elevators are extra slow, just in case they need to catch you there.
I was so relieved when I got the email that my "sapphire is ready". I noticed they didn't say "blue stone", so that was good news! And it came back unheated, and untreated, just like John said. Yay! Now the brief doesn't say it's a color shift. I had asked the receptionist about it when I dropped it off, and she said that "if they notice a color shift, they will note that in the brief". Apparently they didn't notice it. I blame the New York lack of light (latitude)! I live in a Southern latitude, and it makes a definite shift. I know they use all kinds of lamps and bulbs, but the ambient light creeps in somehow, and I couldn't see the shift up there either!
So I feel much better now, and I am newly appreciating that my stone came from the earth exactly as I see it.
More pics: [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/ok-ilander-where-is-it.183597/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/ok-ilander-where-is-it.183597/[/URL]
But I started to worry about the stone, because it was acting strangely. It flashes a bunch of different colors: green, red, blue, white, all in different lights. I started to think that maybe it was a synthetic of some kind. Even on PS I hadn't heard of sapphires flashing various colors. If yours do that, please tell me about it.
Then I started to see a bunch of purple to blue shift garnets. I saw the inclusions in the crown (see pic), but synthetics sometimes have fake inclusions. More worrying.
So, for $75 (gem brief, mounted stone), I decided to find out for sure. If you've never been in their building, it is VERY high security. Your license is scanned by an armed guard in the lobby (long line for that!), you take a special "layman's" elevator, and every office door (it's a maze!), on every floor, is locked tight. The AGL receptionist buzzes you into a vestibule, and if there is another customer at the desk, you are locked in the vestibule. Only when the customer is gone will you be buzzed again, to approach the desk. It's quite a production! I'm convinced the going down elevators are extra slow, just in case they need to catch you there.
I was so relieved when I got the email that my "sapphire is ready". I noticed they didn't say "blue stone", so that was good news! And it came back unheated, and untreated, just like John said. Yay! Now the brief doesn't say it's a color shift. I had asked the receptionist about it when I dropped it off, and she said that "if they notice a color shift, they will note that in the brief". Apparently they didn't notice it. I blame the New York lack of light (latitude)! I live in a Southern latitude, and it makes a definite shift. I know they use all kinds of lamps and bulbs, but the ambient light creeps in somehow, and I couldn't see the shift up there either!
So I feel much better now, and I am newly appreciating that my stone came from the earth exactly as I see it.
More pics: [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/ok-ilander-where-is-it.183597/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/ok-ilander-where-is-it.183597/[/URL]