hey wolverine? uncannily the day you asked for that i got an email from a friend on birthstones... here wot she wrote:
RUBY July's Birthstone
Specific Gravity: 3.96 to 4.01
Hardness: 9.0 (2nd only to diamonds in hardness)
Can be cleaned in ultrasonic cleaners.
Rubies and sapphires are made of aluminum oxide (corundum). The red in rubies is caused by trace amounts of chrominum. The redder the ruby, the more chrominum. Some rubies are bicolored or multicolored.
Rubies grow in crystal form and belong to the hexagonal family of shapes, before cutting and polishing.
Rubies come from Burma, Thailand, and Ceylon. In biblical times, and prehistoric time, they came from Mogok and Burma. Ancient prehistoric tools and ruby chips found by archeologists give rise to this knowledge, and the mines of Mogok are still in operation.
In 1988, a 15.97 carat ruby sold for $3,630,000.00, that's $227,300.00 per carat. High quality rubies of one carat, are many times more rare than diamonds of one carat and can cost more.
RUBY History & Lore
This stone was given as offerings to Buddha in China and Krishna in India.
A common belief was that dreaming of rubies meant the coming of success in business, money matters, and love.
The ruby is thought to change colors (grow darker) when the owner was in danger or when a illness was coming. It was also thought that it would chase off the spirits of the dead and evil spirits not contained in hell.
In China and Europe, in the 10th century, dragons and snakes were carved in their surfaces to increase the flow of money and power to their owners, if today's prices are any indication (quality rubies cost form $2000.00 to $5000.00 per carat) and the owners receive a lot of money when they sell one.
RUBY
Magical Uses
Energy: Projective
Element: Fire
Deities: Buddha, Krishna, Various gods of fire down through time.
Magical Powers: wealth, protection, joy, sexual fire, prevents nightmares, attracts the opposite sex.
Deep ruby red has been used forever as protection and to convey invulnerability from attacks by road agents, evil ones, enemies of all types, jealous women or men, plaques, evil spell and famine. Soldiers wore them to battle to guard against wounds and to promote healing if they receive a wound. Rubies were used to capture a mate by both sexes and to light the passion of concubines and sexual partners.
When combined with gold and worn on the body, it is said they cause the body to rejuvenate and absorb energy from the sun and heal all types of body sickness and skin afflictions. They should be worn with gold to banish sadness or feeling drained or depleted.
Ruled by Mars, they are used for instilling courage when going to war or taking on enemies of any kind to insure victory and ward off wounds or death.
Star rubies, those rare and magical stones with six sided stars, are said to contain their own all seeing spirit who at all times wards off evil spirits and negative people. The spirit in the star stone is said to be the home of each persons angel who lives in contentment with the rubies spirit.
The ruby represents the sun power in Hindu ancient writings.
Rubies have a red aura. If you have one, take it outside and look at its aura, you can even see it in the dark. According to legend, a king in Burma had so many Burmese Rubies, when he took them outside, to gather moon light for them, they lit up the sky above the city.
so yer there you go
i've seen a chunk of emerald on sale for 3 dollars i wanted to buy it but *sigh* though better of saving...
dont worry aboot it though just giving you a heads up.
