One of them is a 4 piece lot of star rubies, that were dug back in the 90's in Western North Carolina. One is the "Appalachian Star Ruby", which is "supposedly" as good or better than the "Rosser Reeves" one The article states that the auction house had the "Rosser Reeves ruby" appraised back in the 80's at $20 million, and 20 years later at $40 million.
"..........that a number of experts who have examined the Appalachian Star Ruby throughout its history have compared it to the 138-carat Rosser Reeves Star Ruby, which is one carat smaller and actually has only a five-sided star as one line is broken". By comparing Rosser Reeves to the Appalachian Star, the Appalachian Star, by every account, seems to come out ahead,” he said. “That’s not condemning Rosser Reeves at all; it’s simply saying that may be great, but so is this one. In fact, this one may even be slightly greater.”
Here are the two rubies they are speaking of....... Not sure how the appraisal of $40 million was made for the Rosser , nor how the Appalachian Star would ever be considered worth anything close to that
Rosser ruby 138ct
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ROSSER.jpg [ 18.74 KiB | Viewed 3700 times ]
Appalachian Ruby 139ct
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APPALACHIAN.jpg [ 24.23 KiB | Viewed 3700 times ]
_________________ MrAmethystguy ~ Some jokes just fluorite over my head!
I wonder if it was 'dug' or 'dug out of a sluice bucket'. I like the Rosser one even if the numbers don't have much collection to reality. Heck, I like the other one too, though if I wanted one I could get it off of eBay for just sliiiiiiiiightly less than that. I think that opaque stars are maybe a bit underappreciated but they're sure not scarce. If it is actually an NC stone that adds a bit of a premium over India but it ain't that much.
Post subject: Re: N.C. star rubies for sale: $40 million?
Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 10:04 pm
Platinum Member
Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:20 am Posts: 2756 Location: Southern California, U.S.A.
I think this is the money quote from the article:
"[Arlan] Ettinger said that the Mountain Star Ruby Collection will be offered without a minimum reserve, while about half of the Manuel Marcial de Gomar Collection will be offered without a reserve price.
“These are wonderful and important stones,” he said. “The world will determine what they’re worth.”
Post subject: Re: N.C. star rubies for sale: $40 million?
Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 1:49 am
Platinum Member
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:40 pm Posts: 2667 Location: South Dakota
ROM wrote:
I think this is the money quote from the article:
"[Arlan] Ettinger said that the Mountain Star Ruby Collection will be offered without a minimum reserve, while about half of the Manuel Marcial de Gomar Collection will be offered without a reserve price.
“These are wonderful and important stones,” he said. “The world will determine what they’re worth.”
We shall see.
Remember the guy with that giant faceted emerald from India, that was all over the news? It was "supposedly" worth $$$$$$...LOL...that dude found out that "the world did determine it's worth"...LOL..$0. Ahhh...Mr. Martin...aka ROM...long time no see. I hadn't been around much, but when I am, I often wonder about you and where you hang out these days. I use info from bunches of your old post and prior ruminations, both on here, and other places, as well. You always have a way of explaining things in common sense terms, and from a pragmatic view point. I have won many a debate or argument, by referencing some of your post.
_________________ MrAmethystguy ~ Some jokes just fluorite over my head!
Looks like the auction was supposed to have happened in june of this year but while the emerald auction does show up (with almost none having sold) the rubies do not.
Post subject: Re: N.C. star rubies for sale: $40 million?
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 3:33 am
Platinum Member
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:40 pm Posts: 2667 Location: South Dakota
$40 million for this ruby cab... $400 million for that stupid Bahia emerald, the one being fought over in L.A. courts..... That giant dyed emerald from India, that was on the news, a few years back....what was it appraised for...millions, if I recall.....
Hmmmm....lots of money and lots of ignorant people, makes one wonder if they should be selling the multitude of idiots out there, some nice million dollar leaverites. How does an auction house stand by those appraisals? You would think, someone would have said something to them, by now. I mean, who the f*ck does that? tacks on $39,998,000 dollars to it's value...sheesh....i need my stones appraised there! I wonder what some of stones would go for?
Man....i had the perfect stone...that 81ct red beryl, I got from Matt Mabus years ago when he was selling off his collection, was the 4th or 5th largest known complete red beryl crystal to have ever been found at Violets claim, or in the world, for that matter. but it was a "strawberries and cream" type, with intruded rhyolite. I paid under a thousand...maybe around $500 for it. I would have shown the appraiser the data on file from Utah USGS, saying something along the lines of...largest red beryl ever found was 50 something carats. Well, here I have an 81ct crystal....surely it's worth $100,000 or more, right? in the top five largest ever found, that has to count for something....LOL.....LOL
_________________ MrAmethystguy ~ Some jokes just fluorite over my head!
Post subject: Re: N.C. star rubies for sale: $40 million?
Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2017 2:44 pm
Gemology Online Veteran
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2015 9:55 am Posts: 543
What happened to "The world will decide"? Or, as a cynic, might I comment that perhaps there were not enough mugs out there? I certainly would have been interested in seeing just what people WERE willing to pay for it.
Post subject: Re: N.C. star rubies for sale: $40 million?
Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2017 11:59 pm
Valued Contributor
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2016 11:29 am Posts: 142
Quite interesting... I wonder where the ruby came from? I know of one Corundum/Ruby site... I saw a Dunite egg with a nice pinkish purple crystal (opaque, definitely not gem quality!) in it... The matrix piece came about a mile as the crow flies from where I lived... The place was supposed to be a local secret, and one of my friends came unglued when I asked him if he could tell me where the ruby mine site was! He was taken aback that anyone, especially an outsider, knew about it! Once he regained his composure, he said " you know what I do for a living, you don't think that pays all the bills, do you?" So he told me a bit more history on that particular site. It's quite amusing, but I won't go into more on a public forum. Suffice to say, you can't go there and collect, and those that try to, may or may not live long enough to regret trying...
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