gems, spinel, Vietnam, Luc Yen, synthetic spinel, Czochralski, treatments, heat treated spinel

The ancient gemstone spinel has experienced an enormous shift in popularity over the last decade. For centuries, the transparent stone was coveted by royalty, especially when found in large sizes like the famous ‘Samarian Spinel’ from the Iranian Crown Jewels, considered to be the largest of its kind at 500 carats. Several pieces of the British Crown Jewels include vivid red spinels, such as the famous ‘Black Prince’s Ruby’, which were erroneously named because there were no scientific methods for separating similarly coloured gemstones at the time of their discovery. Spinel may have also occurred in deposits where ruby was found, further complicating its identification in earlier times.