A large ruby is more valuable than a large diamond, weight for weight. Some experts affirm that a five-carat ruby is worth ten times as much as a five-carat dia¬mond. Certainly an eleven-carat ruby has been known to fetch £7000 sterling, while an eleven-carat diamond is estimated at only £1000 sterling in value. These were pre-war prices.

Rubies are found in Ceylon, Borneo, Kashmir, Siam. Afghanistan, Montana in the United States, and New South Wales, but only a few come from any of these places. The bulk of the rubies in commerce come from Mqgok, ninety miles north-east of Mandalay, the capital of Burma.

For three hundred years the Burmese kings, who loved the ” pigeon-blood ” stones, as they called them, owned the area of land upon which the rubies were found. The possession by any private individual of a ruby worth more than £70 was a crime, and the ruby-fields were forbidden ground to the stranger. Since Great Britain annexed Burma in 1885 these ruby-fields have been worked by an English company, on lease till 1932. The most valuable stone found here weighed 77 carats.