What do you think of this stone?

[CharmedOne]

I found this ring while going through my Grammies things after she passed away. She had quite a bit of jewelry but my FIL didn't want any of it, so they gave it to me. I wanted try to have it sized down because its huge but I wasn't sure if I should find out what the stone is before I do. I really don't want to remove the stone from the setting and was wondering if there is a place I can send the whole ring off to be tested? What do you think? Any advice is appreciated.

 

[CharmedOne]

I took some photos with a blacklight too.

 

[LD]

You can send it off to AGL.

However, before you do that, why don't you pop into your local jewellers and see if they can do a basic RI test? That MIGHT narrow it down a bit and then you can make a decision from there whether to get it analysed further or not. An RI test might not be conclusive but it's a good starting place and for example, you might not want to send it off for testing if it's a topaz or glass? Then again, if it's a sapphire, you might want to!

Can you see any inclusions? It looks very very clean - and large (unless you have tiny fingers). If I'm right and there's an absence of inclusions it's either a very lovely specimen OR it's synthetic (not uncommon in older pieces of jewellery). I have an Emerald green paste ring that I inherited that I adore and it's not worth anything at all but I still love it!

Looking at the colour (so this is only a guess), it could be:-

Topaz
Kunzite
Sapphire
Morganite (doubtful but you never know!)
Spinel (doubtful due to size/clarity)
Synthetic spinel
Glass/Paste

How good are you at looking at facet reflections? Can you tell whether it's singly or doubly refractive? That's another good clue.

At the end of the day this was your Grandmothers and is very pretty.

 

[CharmedOne]

Thank you LD, My local jeweler closed and the jewelry store on the other side of town had a salesperson who had no idea how to test it. I will look up what refraction is. Thanks again.

 

[FrekeChild]

What a beautiful ring! No matter what it is, it's a lovely heirloom!

 

[CharmedOne]

Thank you FrekeChild, I do love it because it belong to her and I would love to be able to wear it more often. It's just too darn big for me

 

[pandabee]

I also don't have any input on what it may be, but it's very pretty! Please let us know if your jeweler is able to help you narrow it down a bit.

 

[LD]

Thank you LD, My local jeweler closed and the jewelry store on the other side of town had a salesperson who had no idea how to test it. I will look up what refraction is. Thanks again.

The RI test I referred to is a test to determine the stone's refractive index. Typically jewellers have the capability as it involves a small instrument and usually some smelly oil! Each gemstone has a refractive index and so it can rule out/in a gemstone or family. What it can't do is weed out synthetics from naturals and there are other restrictions also. So if you have any type of jeweller nearby, they may well have the capability to do this.

In terms of being singly/doubly refractive - this means that you look down into a gemstone and view the facets. Sometimes you'll see just clean lines - other times they will look like 2 blurred lines. This does take some practice to identify correctly but it's a good way of ruling things in or out again.

Lee Little posted a thread a week or so ago with photos of a simulant he had been sold and it's a great photo to learn by .....

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/facet-doubling.183783/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/facet-doubling.183783/[/URL]

 

[chrono]

Don't forget it might be a tourmaline too. Once the gemmologist checks for pleochroism, refractive index and etc, he or she will be able to narrow the possibilities to one or two gem types.

 

[Kelly12]

It's beautiful, what stone it is? I guess it must be very precious.

 

[JewelFreak]

Very pretty ring, whatever the stone turns out to be. You'll enjoy wearing it, I can tell. I have a couple of pieces of my grandmother's that did not turn out to be genuine but I wear them happily anyhow. The genuine part is that they were hers.

--- Laurie

 

[missy]

I think it is such a pretty ring and I love the color of the stone whatever it turns out to be! It looks great on your hand!!

 

[CharmedOne]

Thank you all so much. It is one of my favorite pieces. It's is nothing like having a piece of someone to remember them by. I wear it and remember how feisty she was and how she loved my boys

 

[Jereni]

Very pretty, looks great on your hand!