Jamuni Neelam Prices in Pakistan: How Purple Sapphire Is Valued

In Pakistan most people call purple sapphire jamuni neelam, and that name tells you something useful: it is corundum, the same mineral as blue neelam and red yaqoot. It is just as hard and just as durable. What surprises customers is that it does not follow blue sapphire prices. It runs on its own scale, and the surprise goes both ways. A fine violet stone can cost more than an ordinary blue one, and a pale or greyish purple of the same weight can cost a small part of that.

Here we go through what pushes a purple sapphire's price up or down, show the current spread from our own listings per stone, per carat and per ratti, and explain how to put quotes side by side fairly. If this is your first purple sapphire, start with our purple sapphire buying guide, which covers choosing a stone. This page sticks to value.

Prices from our own listings

The table below comes straight from the purple sapphires we have listed and is refreshed every month. It gives the lowest, typical and highest price per stone, then the same figures per carat and per ratti.

The range is wide because purple sapphire varies so much in colour and size. Use the table to see where a quote falls, then use the points below to decide whether the stone has earned its place there. For other stones, our monthly gemstone prices in Pakistan guide collects the same kind of figures across every category.

What decides the price

1. Hue: which kind of purple

Purple sapphire covers a lot of ground, from bluish violet through pure purple to reddish purple and plum. Customers here usually pay the most for a clean, pure purple or a rich violet. Anything leaning grey or brown costs less. Reddish purples that come close to pink are judged partly as pink sapphire, and they can hold their value well when the colour is lively.

2. Saturation and tone

Saturation is the strength of the colour, and tone is how light or dark it is. The best prices go to strong colour at a medium to medium-dark tone. Pale lavender stones are pretty and kind on the budget. Very dark stones that look almost black indoors lose value, because you are paying for colour you cannot actually see.

3. Colour change

Some purple sapphires change between daylight and warm indoor light, for instance violet-blue outside and purple or reddish purple under a bulb. A clear, pleasing change can carry a premium. Look at the stone in both lights before you settle on a price.

4. Clarity

Fine silk, needles and tiny crystals are normal in natural sapphire and actually help show it is not synthetic. The price drops when inclusions are easy to see without a loupe, break the surface, or leave the stone looking cloudy. An eye-clean stone, meaning one that looks clean at a normal viewing distance, sits above one with visible flaws.

5. Cut and proportions

Sapphire rough is often cut to save weight rather than to look its best. That leaves deep stones with a dark centre, or a "window" where light runs straight through. A well-proportioned stone looks bigger and brighter for its weight and earns more per carat than a heavy, badly cut one.

6. Size

As with other sapphires, purple stones get rarer as they get bigger, so the per-carat rate usually climbs with weight. Colour being equal, a stone twice the size normally costs more than twice as much. That said, large sizes are easier to find in purple than in some other sapphire colours, which is one reason purple appeals to people who want a big corundum ring.

7. Origin

Purple sapphire is mined in Sri Lanka, Madagascar, several East African countries and Afghanistan, among other places. At the top end, origin does affect value, but nobody can prove it by eye, and a label alone adds nothing. We only state origin on a listing when we actually know it, as with this 11.24 carat Afghan purple sapphire and this 11.30 carat African purple sapphire.

8. Treatment

Treatment is one of the biggest price factors, and it is also the one most often kept quiet.

• Unheated: carries a premium for the same appearance.
• Heated: the standard, stable treatment for sapphire, widely accepted and priced as normal.
• Diffusion: colour added by heating with chemicals such as beryllium. Worth well below heated stones.
• Glass filling: fractures filled with lead glass. Much cheaper, and weaker in a ring.

Ask which one applies and have it written on the invoice. For bigger stones, a lab report is the only dependable way to confirm treatment; see lab-certified sapphire.

Reading a bazaar quote: per carat and per ratti

In Pakistani gem bazaars, sapphires are normally quoted per ratti. Do two checks before comparing anything:

• Which ratti? The standard gem ratti is 0.91 carat (about 0.182 g). The sunari ratti jewellers use is about 0.61 carat (about 0.1215 g). The same stone weighs more ratti on the sunari scale, so its per-ratti rate looks lower. Convert to carats with our carat to ratti converter first.
• Rate times weight. The per-ratti rate multiplied by the stated weight should equal the total you are being asked for. Do the sum yourself; mistakes in the seller's favour turn up far more often than mistakes in yours.

Keep in mind that per-carat rates change with size. A lower per-ratti rate on a small stone and a higher one on a large stone of the same quality can both be perfectly fair.

Purple sapphire or amethyst: the price trap we see most

Amethyst, sold as jamunia, is purple quartz. It is far more common, softer (7 on the Mohs scale against sapphire's 9) and much cheaper per carat. Because jamuni neelam and jamunia sound so alike, and the two stones can share the same colour, amethyst sometimes gets sold as purple sapphire. Warning signs:

• a large, very clean purple stone offered as sapphire at a modest price;
• colour zoning in angular patches, which is typical of amethyst;
• on a stone that has already been worn, facet edges that look rounded or scuffed, because quartz wears faster than sapphire.

Only testing tells them apart reliably. If you want a purple stone and do not need corundum, amethyst is a perfectly good buy under its own name; see the amethyst collection and the planned amethyst price guide. Tanzanite is another purple-blue option with a price scale of its own, covered in the planned tanzanite price guide.

The setting: what comes after the stone

The stone is only part of what a finished ring costs. Metal, mounting weight and setting work are separate costs, and quotes that lump them together are hard to compare. Ask for the loose stone price on its own first. Since sapphire is hard and tough, purple sapphire works in almost any setting, slim claws included, so you can choose purely on looks and budget. Silver keeps the total down; gold is the traditional choice in many families. Our planned neelam ring price page explains how a ring quote is built up, and the stone setting service page covers having a loose stone set.

Comparing quotes from different sellers

1. Convert everything to carats. Use one unit for every quote.
2. Compare colour in the same light. Ask for daylight photos or a video, and look indoors as well.
3. Match treatment with treatment. Comparing an unheated stone with a diffused one tells you nothing.
4. Ask for measurements. Length, width and depth in millimetres show whether a stone was cut for looks or for weight.
5. Check what the price covers. Loose stone, setting, certificate and delivery should be counted the same way in every quote.
6. Look at the return terms. A clear return window protects you if a test disagrees with the description.

Budget tiers through our filters

Our shop filters work across every stone. Use them together with the purple sapphire category, or to see what else is around at the same budget.

• The lowest price band: mostly smaller, more affordable stones of other kinds; a place to start if amethyst is an option for you.
• The second band: good for comparing smaller or paler corundum against other purple gems.
• The third band: a useful band for purple sapphires with better colour and size.
• The top band: larger, finer or unheated stones.

Every purple sapphire we have is in the purple sapphire collection, each photographed on its own. To get a feel for size, put this 20.45 carat purple sapphire next to the eleven-carat stones linked above. If you are also considering a blue stone, the planned sapphire price guide covers neelam, and our purple gemstones page lays every purple option out side by side.

Buying purple sapphire from Authentic Gems

We list natural stones only and state known treatments on every listing. You are free to have any stone tested independently. Orders are confirmed by phone or WhatsApp and dispatched within one working day by insured, tracked courier. In Karachi, from DHA and Clifton to Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Bahria Town, delivery usually takes one to two working days; Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and the other big cities usually take two to four, and smaller towns up to about seven. Delivery is a flat Rs. 500 per order. With Cash on Delivery you open the parcel in front of the rider, look at the stone in daylight, then pay, and unused stones can be returned within seven days under our returns policy.

Got a quote from somewhere else? Message us on WhatsApp through our contact page with the weight, measurements, treatment and a photo, and we will tell you plainly how it stacks up against our own listings.

Shop the stones: purple sapphire.