Ruby — known as Yaqoot — is one of the most valuable and most imitated gemstones on the market. Here is how to tell a genuine, natural ruby from glass-filled and synthetic stones.
What Makes a Ruby "Original"?
A genuine ruby is a natural red variety of corundum, coloured by chromium, with a hardness of 9 (second only to diamond). "Original" means it formed naturally in the earth — not grown in a lab or reconstructed from fragments and glass.
5 Ways to Identify a Natural Ruby
- Colour: a vivid, slightly warm red; the finest is the Burmese "pigeon-blood" red.
- Hardness: at 9 Mohs a ruby resists scratches that would mark glass or softer imitations.
- Inclusions: natural rubies usually show fine silk-like inclusions rather than round gas bubbles.
- No bubbles: visible round bubbles are a red flag for glass or glass-filled stones.
- Lab report: the only certain proof is verification by a recognised gem laboratory.
Natural vs Glass-Filled vs Synthetic
Glass-filled rubies are low-grade corundum whose cracks are filled with lead glass — cheap and fragile. Synthetic rubies are real chemically but grown in a lab, so they are worth a fraction of natural stones. Both are common, which is why certification matters.
Buy a Ruby You Can Trust
Every Ruby (Yaqoot) at GemStore.pk is 100% natural, hand-inspected and lab-verifiable, with nationwide cash on delivery. Prefer blue? Compare with Blue Sapphire (Neelam).
