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This very "eye clean" pink sapphire is a potential "heat treatable" stone. The "soft" and "hard" silk ( the milky lines you see) is a mineral called rutile. Thai gem dealers were one of the first to learn that the presence of such silk in a sapphire will result in a "color change and improvement" when exposed to high temperature heat. The color change may be as drastic as turning pink into a blue hue or on occasion instensify the pink into a darker deeper color pink.
There are also many gem dealers who prefer to buy stones that have not been heat treated. They like it the way it came from "Mother Earth" as when it was found from the ground. In fact, non heat treated natural sapphires of good quality are scarce and hard to find. This piece is actually a nice one and one which has very good clarity. The price of US dollars 750.00 in my opinion is also quite reasonable. LA/July 9, 2008.
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