page_title: Sapphire
section_title: Pink sapphires
hierarchical_section_title: Sapphire / Natural sapphires / Sapphires of other colors / Pink sapphires
caption_attribution_description: English: Pink Sapphire ring
context_page_description: Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminum oxide with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. It is typically blue, but natural "fancy" sapphires also occur in yellow, purple, orange, and green colors; "parti sapphires" show two or more colors. Red corundum stones also occur but are called rubies not sapphires. Pink colored corundum may be either classified as ruby or sapphire depending on locale.
  Commonly, natural sapphires are cut and polished into gemstones and worn in jewelry. They also may be created synthetically in laboratories for industrial or decorative purposes in large crystal boules. Because of the remarkable hardness of sapphires – 9 on the Mohs scale – sapphires are also used in some non-ornamental applications, such as infrared optical components, high-durability windows, wristwatch crystals and movement bearings, and very thin electronic wafers, which are used as the insulating substrates of special-purpose solid-state electronics such as integrated circuits and GaN-based blue LEDs.
  Sapphire is the birthstone for September and the gem of the 45th anniversary.
context_section_description: Pink sapphires occur in shades from light to dark pink, and  deepen in color as the quantity of chromium increases. The deeper the pink color, the higher their monetary value. In the United States, a minimum color saturation must be met to be called a ruby, otherwise the stone is referred to as a pink sapphire.
caption: Pink sapphire
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