Where the stones come from.
Origin moves price more than any other single fact in the coloured-stone trade, and it is the claim most often stretched. Each origin page sets out what the deposit is known for, how laboratories reach an origin opinion, and which dealers in the register source from it.
"Ceylon sapphire" is trade shorthand for corundum mined in Sri Lanka, and the island has been digging it out of river gravel for longer than any other source still working.
Tanzania07 in the registerKnown for · Sapphire · Tanzanite · SpinelTanzanite comes from one hillside.
Colombia06 in the registerKnown for · Emerald · Ruby · OpalColombia is the reference origin for emerald, and has been since Spanish colonial exports first reached Europe in the sixteenth century.
Thailand06 in the registerKnown for · Emerald · Ruby · AlexandriteThailand is where much of the world's ruby and sapphire is heated, cut and traded, whatever ground it came from.
Brazil05 in the registerKnown for · Emerald · Ruby · SapphireBrazil is the most varied gem producer on earth.
Myanmar04 in the registerKnown for · Emerald · Ruby · AlexandriteMyanmar, still called Burma across the gem trade, is the origin every ruby is measured against.
Australia03 in the registerKnown for · Ruby · Sapphire · OpalAustralia defined the world opal trade for more than a century and remains its reference origin, and its sapphire fields in Queensland and New South Wales supply the market with dependable dark blues, parti colours and the teal that designers cannot get enough of.
Kenya02 in the registerKnown for · Sapphire · Tanzanite · TourmalineKenya holds a singular place in the coloured stone trade as the home of tsavorite, the green grossular garnet that Campbell Bridges first found in 1967 and traced across the border to the Taita hills in 1971, and that Tiffany named in 1974 for the Tsavo national park next door.
Madagascar02 in the registerKnown for · Sapphire · Spinel · RubyMadagascar produces a wider spread of gem material than almost anywhere else.
Zambia02 in the registerKnown for · Sapphire · Tanzanite · EmeraldZambia is the second force in world emerald and, by volume of fine material, arguably the first.
Ethiopia01 in the registerKnown for · Aquamarine · MorganiteEthiopia became a major gem origin within living memory.
Montana01 in the registerKnown for · Peridot · RubyMontana is the gem origin of the United States that matters to the coloured stone trade, on the strength of one species: sapphire.
Mozambique01 in the registerKnown for · Ruby · SapphireMost of the ruby sold anywhere today came out of the ground in northern Mozambique.
Vietnam01 in the registerKnown for · Ruby · SapphireVietnam entered the first rank of gem origins with the discovery of spinel and ruby around Luc Yen in Yen Bai province in the late 1980s.
AfghanistanOriginAfghanistan sells four quite different things to the gem trade, and the paperwork on all four tends to be written somewhere else.
CambodiaOriginCambodia holds two distinct places in the gem trade.
IndiaOriginIndia is the source of the most valuable sapphire in the world.
PakistanOriginPakistan's northern mountains produce ruby, emerald, spinel, peridot, aquamarine and topaz.