By Ray Lundin – Gemologist
Most people know sapphires as blue stones. The word “sapphire” comes from the Greek word sappheiros after a blue stone called lapis lazuli, but sapphires are not necessarily blue. They come in many colors such as various shades of orange, yellow, green, purple and pink. These non-blue sapphires are called fancy sapphires. It wasn’t until 1802 that rubies, sapphires, and fancy sapphires were identified as the same mineral species called “corundum.” New sources of fancy sapphires were soon discovered in countries like Tanzania. You can find a variety of sapphire colors in most jewelry stores today.
Blue Sapphire
Blue sapphires
Most often, when people refer to sapphires, they normally refer to the blue variety. In its highest qualities, it’s more expensive than the other sapphire colors, with the exception of the same quality padparadscha stone. There are different opinions as to what is the best sapphire hue. Some say blue, others say violet-ish blue. Dealers agree that the greenish blues are less valuable. It has been agreed that the most expensive sapphire color is either medium-dark, vivid blue or medium-dark, vivid violet-ish blue.
Fancy Sapphires
A light to medium-toned, orange-pink stone found in Sri Lanka, is the rarest and most prized of all the fancy sapphires. Its name is believed to have come from the Sinhalese word for the lotus flower, which has a similar color. Often, orange-colored sapphire is called padparadsha, but most sapphires dealers agree that both pink and orange hues must be visible for a stone to be a true padparadscha.
Pink Sapphire
Pink sapphires
Next to the padparadsha, fine pink sapphires are the most highly prized of all the fancy sapphires. The most valuable pink sapphires have a very saturated hot pink color. As the stones get lighter, more brownish or more purple, their value decreases.
Padparadscha sapphire
Orange sapphires
The orange sapphire, often mistakenly called padparadscha, ranges from a yellowish-orange hue to an orangey red. Vivid red-orange stones with medium dark tones are the most valuable, but they usually sell for a fraction of the cost of a pink-orange padparadscha of similar size and quality.
Purple and color-change sapphires – The purple sapphire is usually a step down in value from the orange sapphire. The more red and less brown or gray a purple sapphire has, the greater its value. Medium dark, red-purple stones, called plum sapphires are the most expensive. Some sapphires that look purple or violet indoors under an incandescent light look blue to grayish-blue when viewed in daylight or under fluorescent light. In rare cases, sapphires that are green outdoors turn reddish-brown indoors. In the trade, these stones are called color-change sapphires.
Yellow sapphires - Yellow sapphires range in color from greenish-yellow to orangey-yellow. Strong light yellows or orangey yellows are the most valuable. The least valued are the very pale or brownish stones. Due to their light color and high transparency, flaws are more visible in yellow sapphires than in most other colored varieties.
Green sapphires – Green sapphires are found in Australia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Tanzania and is usually low priced. The reason that it is not so valuable is that it does not come in strong or vivid colors. Another reason is that green sapphire is often just lower quality dark blue sapphire that is cut at a different angle to show its greenish-blue color.
Colorless sapphires
The colorless sapphire is usually called white sapphire. It is less valuable if there is a trace color of blue or yellow present in the stone. During the 1990’s, colorless sapphires became popular as a natural (non-synthetic) diamond substitute.
