Chosen

For centuries mistaken for ruby, and now chosen on its own name — the great imposters were the real jewels all along.

Red Spinel · The Law of Prototype

Family: Spinel (MgAl₂O₄)
Hardness: 8 on the Mohs scale
Colour: Hot pink to blood red; also blue, violet, grey
Signature: Nearly always unheated and untreated — its colour is its own

The stone read as the word

The Black Prince's Ruby in the British Imperial State Crown and the Timur Ruby are both spinel. For a thousand years the finest spinels sat in crowns under another gem's name, and when the science finally separated them, spinel was not demoted — it was chosen. Today collectors pay for spinel precisely because it needs no treatment to be what it is.

It also crystallises in perfect octahedra, sharp two-pointed pyramids that need almost no cutting. Some things are chosen because they came out of the ground already in shape.

What it is carried for

Carried as the stone of being selected under one's own name.
Held for untreated worth — nothing heated, filled or dressed up.
Worn when a woman, a work or an offer is being picked out.