Which One Is Precious Stone? Red or Pink Coral?
Are you confused between red coral and pink coral precious stones? Unlike other gemstones which are of mineral origin, coral is found in an organic form, formed by living organisms. Red coral gemstones formed from the organism named polyps in tropical and subtropical ocean water. When the coral polyps are dead, the hard skeleton of Polyps is used to make coral.
Red Coral Gemstone
Red coral is naturally occurring gemstone. A Coral reef is basically composed of calcium carbonate, which is good for bones. The color of coral may vary from the red color to pink color. These are mainly used for the jewelry making purpose.
Coral is found in the tropical and subtropical area, like Red Sea, Midway Islands, the Canary Islands, the Taiwan and Malaysian islands, the coast of Australia, Italy, and Hawaii.
The class of organic gems is small but includes a number of unusual varieties that are important in the gem trade; amber, coral, jet, ivory, and pearl.
Most corals are formed in the Mediterranean Sea, Especially in Sardinia. Some are also found in the Pacific, in Japan, Taiwan, and Australia. Since coral is an organic material, it is not especially durable.
The hardness of coral is varying from 3 to 4 on the Mohs scale, coral is reasonably hard, but not nearly as hard as many of the gemstone.
The Mediterranean is famous for making red coral, takes a good polish, sometimes emphasized by the presence of a white center or pink color. It is often very pale, with shading or patches of pink or dark pink.
On the other hand, it has a concentric zone of color varies from bright pink to light pink, very similar to Mediterranean coral. Good quality pink coral is uniform in shape and attractive in nature by its color.
The density of Pink coral is varying from 2.85 g/cm. Pink coral is Japanese, occur under deep water. It is usually very big.
Comparison of Red coral and Pink Coral Stones
You cannot compare Red coral and Pink Coral. The reason behind is that sometimes you cannot compare two things because they are so different to make a comparison between them.
The two kinds of coral are hard to differentiate. They are two different types of jewels. Some specific points regarding both the corals are:
- Pink coral is Japanese coral fished in deep water and big in size. Italian red coral is also formed under deep water and fragile in nature. Red coral is fished in deep water between 60 to 200 meters
- Pink coral has a “glassy” texture and it is very useful in the engraving. Red coral is more suitable for smooth processing means not used as engraving.
- There are three points to evaluate coral Size, Color, Purity
- For red coral size and purity are primary factors, color and purity are primary for pink coral.
- Color is secondary for Red coral, but in pink color, only secondary size is considered while evaluating.
