Determining origins of Sapphire

It is not always the case that a sapphire from Kashmir or Burma has to be finest and most valuable one. Factors such as color, clarity, carat and cut remain to be basic factors in grading gemstones. Keeping this in mind a sapphire from Sri Lanka better in terms of color, clarity and size will be higher in price than a poor quality sapphire from Burma. Therefore place of origin is secondary to above four value determinants; in fact referring origin became popular based on prestige of certain mines producing quality reserve.

Origin doesn't really matter when one is dealing with low or mediocre quality of sapphires. It comes into play while determining quality of fine assortments. Kashmir Sapphires are considered to be most precious not only because of their color and purity but also because they are extremely rare. Mining activity in Kashmir was almost over by 1937 hence they are not readily available. Although Sapphires are widely distributed gemstones, there well known sources other than Kashmir are Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand and Australia. Apart from these sources sapphires are also found in Madagascar, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, USA and Vietnam.

Kashmir Sapphires:

Kashmir sapphires are sapphires in medium to medium dark tones of violet blue to blue. Gray in sapphire is a saturation modifier reducing color concentration and brightness of the stone. Gray masking in Kashmir sapphire is minimal making them appear comparatively dense and purer. Since sapphires are dark colored stones it is common to find dark areas on gem's facet known as extinction. Kashmir sapphire being imperial in quality has lesser extinctions. Although these sapphires look good under any all types of light, fluorescent in particular makes them appear predominantly blue.

Burmese Sapphires:

Two peculiar characteristics that distinguish Burmese Sapphires from Kashmir ones are tone and color distribution. While range of tone in Kashmir sapphires varies from medium to medium dark, Burmese sapphires go from medium to darker tones. One can also find few lighter varieties of Burmese sapphires. While their hues tend to be same as that of Kashmir and Sri lankan sapphires their color is more evenly distributed. Due to this it is often referred as "electric blue color".

Sri lankan sapphires:

Sri lankan sapphires line after Kashmir and Burma in terms of prestige. They mostly produce medium to light tones of blue sapphires with uneven color. Additionally, gray masking in Sri lankan sapphires is also very common. All above factors result to lower saturation level ultimately reducing their quality. But this does not mean that one cannot recover a quality sapphire from these mines. A good thing about Sri lankan sapphires is that they have lesser dark extinctions and better brilliance as they are lighter in tone. This makes them highly preferable from jewelry making perspective.

Cambodian and Australian Sapphires:

Sapphires coming from mines of Cambodia and Australia are easy to pick due to their voiletish- blue to greenish- blue hue and heavy gray masking. Their tone ranges from extremely dark to medium dark with black extinction areas.

Although origins play a prominent role in grading quality of gemstones, as a buyer one should remember that a mediocre quality Kashmir sapphire cannot match a premium Sri lankan sapphire despite its origin.