Ratnapura gem market street purchasing: how to verify unheated padparadscha sapphires?
3 Answers from travellers
Never settle transactions for high-value pinkish-orange corundum on the pavement based purely on loupe inspection. Demand a provisional memo deal that permits walk-in testing at the National Gem and Jewellery Authority (NGJA) regional laboratory in Ratnapura. Natural padparadscha displays no surface-conformal colour concentration or melted rutile silk under immersion microscopy, which detects lattice diffusion immediately.
Keep the formal NGJA export memo intact if you plan to carry rough or faceted stones out through CMB airport; standard customs officers flag loose stones lacking the official assay valuation receipt.
Dealers frequently carry portable daylight torches that distort the delicate pink-orange balance toward orange. Always inspect the stone against clean white paper under neutral 5500K illumination.
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