They also differ in hardness: sapphires are nine on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness while rubies measure only at 7, making them softer if you somehow managed to drop one.įinally, though they can be found in the same mines, they’re generally mined by different methods. Sapphires are more expensive than rubies because they’re much rarer.Īnother difference is that sapphire has a higher refractive index and shine than ruby. The difference in hue can be attributed to their different origins and chemical compositions and ranges from pink to purple with the most valuable containing no white spots or streaks. Sapphire also exists in various colors other than just blue, while rubies only naturally come in one color: red. This terminology is still used to distinguish between the two stones, such as ruby-rich corundum and sapphire-rich corundum. One of these is their origin: corundum, which gives both stones their name (sapphire from “corundum”) comes from aluminum oxide while rubies originally came from magnesium oxide.

There are several notable differences between these two precious gemstones. Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Ruby vs Sapphire () What is the difference between a ruby and a sapphire?

Ruby and sapphire