www.weevilmagazine.com Issue #5 February 2010
The Corundum Conundrum
Whatever you do, promise me one thing: you will a well-respected gem expert, and has been
never go into the gem industry, however good you suggested that the papers were forged.
are at playing Bejewelled. I’m telling you this Nevertheless, it was advertised at its full valuation
because, as has become apparent recently, gems when the company went into liquidation, standing
are notoriously slippery customers, and the worst out somewhat against a list of old chairs, printers
joker in the pack (or should that be the knave of and other office furnishings. Marcus McCullum,
diamonds?) is the ruby. who conducted the new valuation said “A two kilo
lump of anyolite is probably worth about £100. A
There are all sorts of myths and legends valuation of £11m would be utterly bonkers.” In the
concerning magical properties of gems (I’ve end, the rock was finally listed in Rock ‘n’ Gem, a
discovered that amethyst doesn’t prevent quarterly magazine for collectors.
drunkenness), cursed jewels and people driven
mad by the stress of cutting diamonds. Wrekin Meanwhile, in complete contrast, an argument was
Construction possibly had the saddest story to tell raging between a Geology supervisor and a
when they discovered that a gem belonging to the student right here in Cambridge. The supervisor
company was worth not £11m, as they’d thought, had asked the student to identify a mineral
but a mere £100. specimen, and the student was adamant that the un
dru
m
sample was a ruby. The supervisor, believing it to
The gem in question, called ‘The Gem of be a more run-of-the mill mineral, tried to prove her
Tanzania’, was believed to be a giant ruby point by hitting it with a hammer to look for the
weighing in at over 2 kg (10,000 carats), and had mineral’s cleavage, but to no avail. The debate
been given a “fair value” – according to owner continued for weeks until an x-ray diffraction test
David Unwin – of £11m. Unwin took over the was conducted. The result: the specimen was a
company three years ago, saying that the gem ruby, and the supervisor had obliterated it. Luckily
would transform the balance sheets and buy off the for her, the ruby was low-grade, so had little value
losses from previous years. However, when the for the jewellery trade. T
he
Co
run
du
m
Co
n
gem underwent a second valuation last year, it was
discovered that the ruby is The sad conclusion from
not a ruby at all. Rubies all this is that it is best to
are made of corundum, a stay away from rubies at
crystalline form of all (financial) cost,
aluminium oxide, but this especially seeing as
rock was made out of a synthetic rubies are much
mineral called anyolite, cheaper and are almost
which contains lots of impossible to tell from the
calcium and silicon real thing. Might as well
impurities, and is pretty just go back to playing
worthless. Bejewelled.
There is still some suspicion over the original James Syrett is starting to feel better about giving
seven-figure valuation, as it supposedly came from up geology, but won’t be getting rich any time soon.
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