Red spinel is a stone comparable to ruby, with a hardness of 8 on the Mohs scale, generally with a beautiful brilliance and great clarity. However, spinel is not limited to its red color, as it appears in a wide range of colors: blue, pink, orange, gray...
A surprising anecdote: the Timur ruby is one of the jewels of the English crown; however it is not a ruby, but a spinel! Indeed, many stones that were thought to be rubies turned out to be spinels. The most famous spinels are red and blue. They come mainly from Myanmar and Sri Lanka, from the same deposits as rubies and sapphires.
