| Ironically red spinels, often referred to in ancient texts as balas rubies, are actually more rare than ruby but, unlike ruby, they can sometimes be found in very large sizes. |
| A highlight will also be a visit to Badakhshan's long lost balas ruby mines and a side trip to the Russian emerald mines. |
| In the inventory of the crown jewels of France, the price of balas rubies is four or five times less than that of spinels. |
| The crown is lavishly decorated with twenty pearls and ninety-six gemstones including sapphires, rubies, balas rubies, emeralds and lynx sapphires. |
| Spinelle Ruby, called Dodecahedral corundum by some mineralogists, and balas ruby by lapidaries. |
| Hence, in 1402, Berry convinced the king to open the royal coffers and disburse 14,000 of the 18,000 ecus he needed to purchase a fabulous balas ruby. |
