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.
Sri Lanka has mined sapphire for more than two thousand years.
Tanzania07 in the registerKnown for · Sapphire · Spinel · TanzaniteTanzania has been the most productive new source of coloured stones of the last sixty years.
Thailand06 in the registerKnown for · Alexandrite · Morganite · SapphireThailand 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 · Aquamarine · Morganite · AlexandriteBrazil is the most varied gem producer on earth.
Colombia05 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.
Australia03 in the registerKnown for · Sapphire · Ruby · OpalAustralia defined the world opal trade for more than a century and remains its reference origin, while its sapphire fields in Queensland and New South Wales supply the market with dependable dark blues, parti colours and fancy stones.
Myanmar03 in the registerKnown for · Alexandrite · Sapphire · EmeraldMyanmar, still called Burma across the gem trade, is the origin every ruby is measured against.
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 first described from the Taita hills in 1967 and named for the nearby Tsavo national park.
Madagascar02 in the registerKnown for · Sapphire · Spinel · RubyMadagascar produces a wider range of gem material than almost any other country.
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 · SapphireMozambique is now the largest ruby source in the world by volume.
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.
Zambia01 in the registerKnown for · Sapphire · TanzaniteZambia is the second force in world emerald and, by volume of fine material, arguably the first.
AfghanistanOriginAfghanistan has supplied gems to the world for as long as records exist; the lapis mines of Badakhshan were working six thousand years ago and the balas rubies of medieval treasuries, in fact spinel, came from the Kuh i Lal workings on the borders of the same province.
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.