Engagement Diamond Given by Olympian Michael Phelps to Nicole Johnson Symbolizes a 'Pool of Love'

If you've been mesmerized by the swimming feats of Olympic legend Michael Phelps, you may be equally impressed by his taste in bridal jewelry. The engagement ring you see here was presented by Phelps to former Miss California Nicole Johnson when he proposed to her in February of 2015.

Exactly a year later, Johnson posted a closeup of the ring and offered a peek into the symbolism of the large oval-cut diamond center stone and what seem to be shield-shaped side stones.

She wrote: "[The] center is a pool representing our pool of love and each side stone is shaped like rain drops that continue to fill our pool. Thank you @intagemsanddiamonds for helping @m_phelps00 create the most beautiful ring I've ever seen. #imnotbiased #ringselfie #rings #engaged #soontobemrs"

Her February post was well received by her 303,000 followers as it generated 15,400 likes and 1,081 comments.

Interestingly, Johnson knows a lot about fine jewelry and is more than comfortable behind a loupe. She earned an Accredited Jewelry Professional designation through the Gemological Institute of America in 2011 and worked as an assistant marketing manager and sales associate for Los Angeles-based INTA Gems & Diamonds. Among her accomplishments at the firm was assisting in the design and development of the official crown for the Miss California Teen USA pageant. (Note: GIA's AJP designation has been renamed from Accredited Jewelry Professional to Applied Jewelry Professional.)

While Phelps became the biggest story of the Rio Olympic Games, NBC's television cameras repeatedly cut away to emotional shots of the swimmer's supportive fiancée and their new baby, Boomer Robert Phelps, who was born on May 5th.

Phelps entered the Rio Games as the most decorated Olympian in history, with 22 medals, including 18 golds. As a 31-year-old, he added five golds and a silver during eight grueling days of competition — a competition that he says will be his last. He won his 23rd, and final, Olympic gold medal Saturday night by swimming his best stroke, the butterfly, in the 4x100 medley.

Phelps and Johnson met at the ESPY Awards in 2007 and have dated since 2009. They announced their engagement in February of 2015 and their wedding is scheduled for the end of this year.

Credits: Images via Instagram/nicole.m.johnson.

Music Friday: Cowboy With a Cheating Heart Learns a Valuable Life Lesson in Kenny Rogers' 'If You Want to Find Love'

Hey, it's Music Friday when we bring you fabulous songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, a cowboy learns a valuable life lesson in Kenny Rogers' 1991 hit, "If You Want to Find Love."

Co-written by Rogers, Skip Ewing and Max D. Barnes, the song uses multiple jewelry and precious metal references to tell the story of two strangers who meet in a bar. The man has a cheating heart, but the woman sets him straight.

She reacts to the cowboy's advances with the following advice: "If you wanna find gold / Go looking in the mountains / If you wanna find silver / Go digging in stones / If you wanna find heaven / Go reading in the Bible / If you wanna find love / Go looking at home."

Later in the song, the woman focuses on the cowboy's wedding band. Rogers sings, "She touched the gold ring on his finger / And held it to the jukebox light / And she said, 'Stranger, think what you're losing / If you leave here with me tonight."

"If You Want to Find Love" was released as the first single from Back Home Again, the county music superstar's 24th studio album. The single reached #11 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.

Born in Houston in 1938, Kenneth Ray "Kenny" Rogers is one of the most successful country artists of all time. He has charted more than 120 singles and topped the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks. In all, he has sold more than 120 million records worldwide and, amazingly, charted a record within each of the last seven decades.

The soon-to-be 78-year-old (his birthday is August 21) announced in 2015 that he would be retiring from show business after a final tour, which he is calling "The Gambler’s Last Deal.” Shows will run through April of 2017.

Please check out the video of Rogers' live performance of "If You Want To Find Love." The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along...

"If You Want To Find Love"
Written by Skip Ewing, Max D. Barnes and Kenny Rogers. Performed by Kenny Rogers.

He was sitting on a bar stool
A picture from a cheating song
She'd been standing by the jukebox
Dropping quarters all night long.

He said, tell me: are you lonely?
Is there some place we can go?
She said: cowboy, you know I'm lonely
But there's something you should know:

If you wanna find gold
Go looking in the mountains
If you wanna find silver
Go digging in stones
If you wanna find heaven
Go reading in the Bible
If you wanna find love
Go looking at home.

She touched the gold ring on his finger
And held it to the jukebox light
And she said. Stranger, think what you're losing
If you leave here with me tonight.

So he pulled her body closer
She felt feelings she'd never known
And he said: thank you, for the lesson
And if you need me I'll be at home.

If you wanna find gold
Go looking in the mountains
If you wanna find silver
Go digging in stones
If you wanna find heaven
Go reading in the Bible
If you wanna find love
Go looking at home.

If you wanna find gold
Go looking in the mountains
If you wanna find silver
Go digging in stones
If you wanna find heaven
Go reading in the Bible
If you wanna find love
Go looking at home.

If you wanna find love
Go looking at home.

Credit: Kenny Rogers by Eva Rinaldi [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Style Writers Swoon Over This 80-Carat Emerald-Cut Diamond Engagement Ring

Back in early April, jewelry designer JS Diamonds posted this incredible 80-carat emerald-cut diamond engagement ring on its Instagram page, along with the caption, "Not your every day ring!! 80 carat emerald cut #diamond #bigrock." Over the next four months, the post accumulated 567 likes and 90 comments.

But, then on August 6, the fine jewelry blog Gem Hunt reposted the ring on its Instagram page, and the results were astonishing.

Not only did the post earn 2,700 likes and 327 comments in just four days, but it also caught the attention of style writers from Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, WhoWhatWear and Brit + Co., among others.

The writers seemed to enjoy the fact that the 80-carat diamond was far larger than even the blingiest engagement rings worn by such A-listers as Kim Kardashian-West (15 carats), Ciara (12-15 carats) and Mariah Carey (35 carats).

One scribe did some quick math to extrapolate the approximate value of the 80-carat stunner. If Carey's ring was worth $7.4 million, she reasoned, the much larger ring would probably sell for more than $15 million.

In Cosmopolitan UK, readers were asked about their preference of engagement rings: "big and bling" or "understated and simple." Then the writer injected her own opinion: "Well, after seeing [this] ring, your dream scenario may just hit new, extravagant heights of sparkling, shiny beauty."

The writer concluded that although this style might not be for everyone, and that less-is-more is just as beautiful and elegant, "there's no denying that this would turn a few heads. Do you fancy yourself sparkling in it?"

At Marie Claire, the style writer asked her readers, "Would you wear it, if you could? Is this really the dream engagement ring?"

"Knowing that your carat count is higher than Mariah, Kim K and Ciara’s combined would be a pretty fun statement to throw around at parties," she wrote, "and there’s no doubt you’re going to turn heads with this, blinding all onlookers."

She conceded, however, that with a rock that big, some people would think the diamond was a "shard of cubic zirconia."

A writer at WhoWhatWear.com admitted the 80-carat diamond engagement ring was unlike any jewelry she's ever seen.

"We came across the hugest diamond engagement ring we've seen in a long time. Scratch that—it's the hugest one ever," she wrote. "The emerald-cut stone is a whopping 80 carats! We can only imagine what it feels like to put a ring like that on your finger. It's nearly half the size of the model's hand and is probably pretty heavy. In any case, it's stunningly beautiful."

And Brit + Co. summed it up perfectly, when a style writer concluded, "Just when you thought you couldn’t possibly be shocked by the size of a diamond after seeing examples like Ciara’s jaw-droppingly giant engagement ring and double-band diamond sparkler wedding ring, BAM, here’s an 80-carat engagement ring to totally blow your mind. That’s right, 80-whopping-carats of stunning diamond beauty that is truly beyond spectacular."

Credit: Instagram.com/jsdiamonds.

$1 Billion 'Gahcho Kué' Diamond Mine Ramps Up in Canada's Northwest Territories

De Beers and Canadian partner Mountain Province recently took the wraps off their Gahcho Kué diamond mine, a $1 billion project that promises to generate 4.5 million carats per year.

The mining companies believe there is a great chance of finding large, fine diamonds at the mine because test samples already have yielded two gem-quality stones, weighing 24.65 carats and 12.1 carats, respectively.

Situated at the edge of Kennady Lake in Canada's remote Northwest Territories, the Gahcho Kué mine sits atop a labyrinth of kimberlite pipes, which are usually surefire indicators that diamonds are nearby. The pipes are often likened to volcanic superhighways that can deliver precious diamonds from deep within the earth to the surface.

Gahcho Kué's officially opening next month will mark the culmination of a 23-year odyssey that began with some basic geological sampling and built up to a $1 billion, two-year development project.

The mine will go into full commercial production by early 2017 and is expected to have a 13-year life span.

"Starting the ramp-up to production at Gahcho Kué — on time, on budget and in a challenging environment — is a remarkable achievement," De Beers Chief Executive Bruce Cleaver said in a statement.

Gahcho Kué means "place of the big rabbit" in the Dene Suline language of the region's native Chipewyan people.

De Beers and Mountain Province are 51/49 partners in the Gahcho Kué mine, and this is De Beers' third mine in Canada. The other two are located at Snap Lake (Northwest Territories) and Victor (Ontario).

De Beers described Gahcho Kué as a remote fly-in/fly-out location just 140 miles (280km) northeast of its existing Yellowknife diamond mine.

Credit: Images by De Beers Canada, GoogleMaps.com and DeBeersGroup.com.

'Office' Star Angela Kinsey's Emerald Engagement Ring Honors Her New Blended Family

The Office star Angela Kinsey and her long-time beau, Joshua Snyder, are engaged. Kinsey took to Instagram last Thursday to announce the good news and to show off a non-traditional colored gemstone engagement ring that honors her new blended family.

The actress revealed that the couple’s three children from previous relationships witnessed Snyder popping the question with a unique ring featuring a vibrant emerald center stone set horizontally into a simple yellow-gold band.

Kinsey posted a photo of herself and a closeup of the ring with the following caption: “The ring is an emerald because it’s all three of our kids’ birthstone. The kids made me cards and pictures and I cried. I cried that happy ugly cry. #gonnagethitched”

The sweet Instagram post also outlined how the children participated in the proposal... “We were going out to dinner and my daughter said that first she wanted to show me the fort in the backyard that she and my boyfriend’s sons had been working on. She led me outside and there was a blanket by the pool and she said I had to sit on it. His sons brought me flowers and then [Joshua] came around the corner with a ring. He had called my mom and asked for her blessing... that would have made my Dad so happy. He proposed and I said yes.”

Emerald engagement rings are an option for those who want to “go green” to express their individual style. Kinsey joins former First Lady Jackie Kennedy on the short list of luminaries who have worn emerald engagement rings.

• Kennedy’s famous engagement ring featured a 2.88-carat diamond mounted alongside a 2.84-carat emerald. During John F. Kennedy’s presidency, the ring was redesigned with more than 2 carats of round and marquise accent diamonds.

• In 2012, French film actor Olivier Martinez famously asked actress Halle Berry for her hand with a diamond and emerald engagement ring designed by Robert Mazlo. The couple split in 2015.

• In 2013, comedian and screenwriter Jason Sudeikis presented Olivia Wilde with a classic round diamond surrounded by a gorgeous emerald halo (to match her eyes). The couple is expecting their second child.

• Earlier this year, former tennis pro Ruben Torres proposed to actress Hilary Swank with a natural Colombian emerald on a platinum Art Deco-inspired setting. The ring was beautiful, but the couple split a few months later.

Kinsey is best known for her role as the uptight, religious cat-loving accountant Angela Martin in the NBC mega hit, The Office. Joshua Snyder is an actor and writer best known for his roles in Shopgirl (2005), The Glass Beads (2005) and Short Track (2008).

Kinsey was previously married to Warren Lieberstein, with whom she shares an eight-year-old daughter, Isabelle. The couple divorced in 2010.

Credits: Photos via Instagram/AngelaKinsey.

Music Friday: Whitney Houston's 'One Moment in Time' Is the Gold Standard of Olympic Theme Songs

Welcome to Music Friday when we regularly bring you amazing songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, we change up the criteria a bit to pay tribute to the opening of the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

As thousands of athletes from around the world go for the gold we thought it would be a great time to feature Whitney Houston's "One Moment in Time," a pop anthem USA Today called "the gold standard by which all Olympic theme songs should be judged."

A song that focuses on what it takes to reach the pinnacle of one's life, "One Moment in Time" became the theme song for NBC's coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

In rating it the best Olympic song of all time, USA Today noted that the lyrics perfectly define the spirit of the Games — working hard, overcoming setbacks, believing in oneself and ultimately becoming a champion.

Putting the song over the top is Houston's Emmy award-winning performance.

She sings, "Give me one moment in time / When I'm more than I thought I could be / When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away / And the answers are all up to me / Give me one moment in time / When I'm racing with destiny / Then in that one moment of time / I will feel / I will feel eternity."

Written by John Bettis and Albert Hammond, "One Moment in Time" was released as a single from The 1988 Summer Olympics Album: One Moment in Time and charted in 17 countries, including a top-5 position on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Bettis famously wrote "Top of the World" for the Carpenters and Hammond wrote and performed "It Never Rains in Southern California."

Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born in 1963 in Newark, N.J. Her mom was an accomplished gospel singer and her dad was an entertainment executive. She was also a first cousin of singer Dionne Warwick. At age 11, Houston started performing in the junior gospel choir at her church, and throughout her youth was inspired by some of top names in the business, including Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight and Roberta Flack. At age 20, she was signed to a record deal by Arista head Clive Davis. In 2001, she negotiated the biggest contract in music history: an eight-album deal worth $100 million.

During her career, Houston amassed 200 million record sales and 11 #1 hits, including "I Will Always Love You."

Houston died tragically in 2012 at the age of 48.

Please check out Houston's performance of "One Moment in Time" in the tribute video below. Here are the lyrics if you'd like to sing along...

"One Moment in Time"
Written by John Bettis and Albert Hammond. Performed by Whitney Houston.

Each day I live
I want to be
A day to give
The best of me
I'm only one
But not alone
My finest day
Is yet unknown

I broke my heart
Fought every gain
To taste the sweet
I face the pain
I rise and fall
Yet through it all
This much remains

I want one moment in time
When I'm more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away
And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time
When I'm racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will feel
I will feel eternity

I've lived to be
The very best
I want it all
No time for less
I've laid the plans
Now lay the chance
Here in my hands

Give me one moment in time
When I'm more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away
And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time
When I'm racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will feel
I will feel eternity

You're a winner for a lifetime
If you seize that one moment in time
Make it shine

Give me one moment in time
When I'm more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away
And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time
When I'm racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will be
I will be
I will be free
I will be
I will be free

Credits: Whitney Houston photo by Asterio Tecson (Flickr: 111) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

'Bachelorette' JoJo Fletcher Gets Her Man and a Dazzling 3.5-Carat Oval-Cut Diamond Engagement Ring

More than 8.4 million fans of The Bachelorette watched breathlessly as JoJo Fletcher professed her love to Jordan Rodgers during Monday's climactic two-hour season finale.

The former NFL player responded by getting down on one knee and presenting the real estate developer with a 3.5-carat diamond engagement ring valued at $85,000. The ring features an oval-cut center stone accented with pavé diamonds on a platinum band.

In the romantic lead up to the proposal, the 27-year-old aspiring sports broadcaster said, “It’s moments like this, where I’m holding your hand, I’m looking in your eyes, and I know I’m so unbelievably in love with you. You’re my best friend, you’re my soulmate."

Fletcher responded by saying, “I love you so much, and I’ve been waiting to tell you how I feel. I just love you so much… I didn’t want you to get down on one knee until you knew that.”

“It’s real, and it’s been real,” he said of their whirlwind romance. “I love you so much, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Joelle Hannah Fletcher, will you marry me?”

Of course, she said, "Yes."

An insider told Us Weekly that the oval-cut diamond ring by Neil Lane was Rodgers' favorite from the moment he saw it.

"She also loves it," said the insider, "and it's one of the most unusual and rare cut stones to be seen on the show thus far."

Earlier in the episode Fletcher, 25, was forced to send runner-up Robby Hayes packing.

“Robby, I woke up this morning wanting it to be you," said Fletcher. "Every day, I’ve been wanting it to be you. I fell in love with you, but for some reason my heart is somewhere else.”

Fletcher and Rodgers will get to keep the $85,000 ring if their relationship remains intact. The Bachelor host Chris Harrison was unclear about the rules regarding when a ring must be returned to designer Lane.

"There's some rule, after a certain number of years, you get to keep it anyway," he told Us Weekly. "But after months [if there is a breakup]... it goes back."

Us Weekly noted that out of 20 seasons of The Bachelor and 11 seasons of The Bachelorette, only a handful of couples have remained together, including married pairs Trista and Ryan Sutter, Desiree Hartsock and Chris Siegfried, Sean Lowe and Catherine Giudici, and Ashley Hebert and J.P. Rosenbaum. Season 11 Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe and her final pick, Shawn Booth, are still happily engaged.

Credit: Bachelorette images and screen captures via ABC. Ring image courtesy of Neil Lane.

Newlyweds Reunited With Wedding Ring Thanks to GPS Coordinates Inscribed Inside the Band

A wedding band found on the beach in Maui made its way back to a grateful couple in Kansas — more than 3,800 miles away — thanks to a set of GPS coordinates inscribed inside the band.

About a month ago, Brandon and Megan Schumacher of Overland Park, Kan., were enjoying their honeymoon on the Hawaiian island of Maui when Brandon took off his wedding band to keep it from getting caked with sunscreen and sand. He dropped it in the nosepiece of his goggles for safekeeping, but then forgot about it.

“I started to mess with my GoPro, got distracted and walked out to the water," he told KMBC 9 News. "The next thing I know an hour had passed and the ring was gone.”

He had taken the goggles into the surf to rinse out the sand, so the missing ring could have been in the water or on the beach.

“I ran back to where I originally took it off and searched for about an hour,” Brandon told ABC News. “My wife ran up to the beach [bartender] who told her about this guy whose main job is using a metal detector to find wedding rings. We called him and he searched for a few hours and found nothing.”

Before they left the island to return home to Kansas, the couple filed a police report and alerted local pawn shops of their loss.

About a week later, the couple agreed that the ring was likely gone forever, so they ordered a replacement.

Meanwhile, back in Maui, Oregonian vacationers Dean and Young Barnes, were taking a romantic stroll in ankle-deep water when Young saw something unusual in the sand. It was 9:30 at night and the visibility was poor, but the object caught Young's attention and forced her to stop to take a closer look. It was a man's wedding band.

Dean and Young noticed a series of numbers inscribed in the band, but didn't understand what they could mean. Later, they showed the inscription to their son-in-law and daughter, and the young couple immediately recognized the numbers as GPS coordinates.

When they typed the numbers into GoogleMaps, the resulting pin landed right on the Legacy Christian Church in Overland Park, where the Schumachers were wed only weeks before.

The Barnes family contacted representatives of the Legacy Christian Church, who emailed the Schumachers with the improbable news. The Schumachers offered a reward but the Barneses refused.

A reporter from local ABC affiliate KMBC 9 News was on hand when the UPS truck arrived with Brandon's ring. In a heartwarming moment, the newlyweds reenacted their ring ceremony and Megan made Brandon promise to never take the ring off again.

In a letter that accompanied the returned jewelry, Dean Barnes explained why a reward was unnecessary.

“I informed Megan that we did not do anything and that God deserved ‘all’ of the glory," he said. "None of us did anything.”

The Schumachers also spoke about divine intervention...

“There were too many things that had to go right,” said Brandon. “Be in the right spot at the right time, step on something in the water, had to have the coordinates, everything. And it just worked out too perfectly. We keep looking back and there was just too many things for it to just be a coincidence.”

Credits: Images courtesy of Megan Schumacher; screen captures via kmbc.com.

Moving This Summer? Here Are the Top Tips for Keeping Your Jewelry Safe

Did you know that July 31 was the busiest moving day of the year and that the summer is the most popular moving season? So, if you're planning to resettle across town or even across the country, please consider these tips compiled by Jewelers Mutual Insurance Company and amended by our team for keeping your jewelry safe...

• Do not pack valuable jewelry in boxes and do not put your jewelry into storage. It can get lost with other items or stolen.

• If you’re moving locally, keep valuable items in a safety deposit box at a bank until you’re settled in and ready to retrieve them. If you’re moving a long distance, keep valuable jewelry with you at all times.

• Don’t wear jewelry while you’re packing, unpacking or doing heavy lifting. You may damage, bend or scratch precious metals, or chip valuable stones.

• Pack earrings, necklaces and bracelets separately so they don’t get tangled. Use zip-type small storage bags or pill organizers.

• Keep track of your items. Take a picture of each piece and create a detailed list of the items. Be sure to write a description for each piece and include serial numbers for items that have them. Make two copies of the list – take one with you when you move, and store the other one in a safety deposit box.

• Make sure your valuable items have been recently appraised to reflect their current values and replacement costs. If necessary, adjust your coverage accordingly. Make copies of appraisals and receipts. Again, take one copy with you and place the other in a safety deposit box.

• Your jewelry should be properly insured. If your jewelry is covered under your homeowners’ or rental policy, it may only be insured for up to $1,000. Also, be sure your insurance company covers "mysterious disappearance." Often, it won't.

• Resist using social media. As tempting as it is to share the excitement of your move, save the stories and photos for your housewarming party. Well intentioned posts can easily extend past your group of friends. Your family's jewels are more vulnerable during your move, so the fewer people who know about it, the better.

For more information on protecting your jewelry, visit Jewelers Mutual Insurance Company's website here.

Credit: Image by BigStockPhoto.com.

Spinel — The Great Imposter of Gemstone History — Is the New August Birthstone

Available in a rainbow of vibrant colors, but best known as a ruby doppelgänger, the spinel has joined the yellow-green peridot as an official birthstone for the month of August.

The American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) and Jewelers of America (JA) delivered the surprising news in June. It was only third time in the past 104 years that the modern birthstone list had been updated.

"At certain moments in history, when there is a strong call from gem enthusiasts to expand the list of official birthstones, Jewelers of America believes in recognizing the importance of historically significant gemstones and giving gemstone lovers a choice that suits their preferences,” said JA President and CEO David Bonaparte.

The International Colored Gemstone Association (ICA) called spinel "the great impostor of gemstone history." That's because some of the most famous "rubies" in crown jewels around the world are actually spinels.

Prominently displayed on the Imperial State Crown of England is the 170-carat Black Prince Ruby, which is actually a uncut spinel.

The 361-carat Timur Ruby, which was presented by the East India Company to Queen Victoria as a gift in 1851, and is engraved with the names of some of the Mughal emperors who previously owned it, was later identified as a spinel.

And the 398-carat ruby-red gem that tops the Imperial Crown of Russia commissioned by Catherine the Great in 1763 turned out to be, you guessed it, a spinel.

The masquerade continued until gemologists and mineralogists finally developed the technical ability to distinguish spinel from ruby.

Chemically, the two gems are similar. Both spinel and ruby are aluminum oxides, but spinel contains magnesium and ruby doesn't.

Both spinel and ruby get their red coloring from minute amounts of chromium, which replace some of the aluminum within the crystal. The chromium so vital to the ruby’s blazing color is also responsible for causing fissures in the crystal, making rubies larger than 3 carats in size extremely rare and very valuable.

Established in 1912 by the American National Retail Jewelers Association (now known as JA), the modern birthstone list was updated in 1952 to add alexandrite (June), citrine (November), tourmaline (October) and zircon (December). The listed was amended again in 2002 when tanzanite joined the group of December birthstones.

Spinel comes in a variety of vibrant colors, including soft pastel shades of pink and purple, fiery oranges, and cool hues ranging from powdery gray to intense blue. It is a durable gem with a a hardness of 8.0 on the Mohs Hardness Scale. By comparison, diamond rates a 10 and ruby rates a 9.

Some of the most beautiful spinels — especially the pink, red and orange-red varieties — are found in Myanmar. They're also sourced from Afghanistan, Brazil, Cambodia, Kenya, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand and Vietnam.

Credits: Spinel crystal by Smallru (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons; Imperial State Crown of England by Cyril Davenport (1848 – 1941) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. Timur Ruby via the Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2012; Smolensk Diamonds' modern interpretation of the Imperial Crown of Russia by Shakko (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.