Garnet, Ruby or glass?!

Is there’s straightforward way to tell the difference without a gem tester and 20 years experience!
I’ve looked at several websites and they all tell you how to tell the difference if you have both a ruby and a garnet in your hand but I only have this.
This pendant is a little oddity..... I wonder if it started life as a necklace clasp with a different stone in it?. Current stone is too pointy at the back to put a clasp in to.
It is marked sterling silver but the ‘terlin’ has had that loop soldered over it (to make a pendant?). It measures 8mm across.
Thanks for any thoughts

 

My guess is glass.

Yes, half a clasp. You can use the tongue part of another s(terlin)g clasp, maybe file it down a bit to fit, and use it as a clasp on a nice necklace.

 

That's a great idea. It's very pretty

 

When I was a kid, family trip to the "ruby mines" of North Carolina. We were taught that "all rubies fluoresce" ... no idea if that is true.

 

Not all. This one looks like glass.

 

I'm with evelyb, not all rubies fluoresce. But of course K will grab any opportunity to hide in the wardrobe with a UV light and a bag of beauties. And I know the feeling, although I usually check underneath my desk.
Go for it K!

 

But then you would have problems trying to figure out if it was natural or man made ruby.

 

Only if it fluoresced bright orange-red, according to the information I have. Most of my rubies are antique Burmese, they are never orange-red.
I mostly use UV as one of the steps in identifying amber, no bright orange-red there.

 

So disappointing. They used a blacklight to determine if our "finds for the day" were "Real. North Carolina. Rubies."

Maybe it's just that all Real. North Carolina. Rubies. Fluoresce.

 

Maybe you have never heard of Ramaura ruby,when they were first invented even GIA could not tell them from natural ruby ..http://www.ramaura.com/?page_id=140

 

Huge silver ring with synthetic rubies, in full electric light, not closet:

 

Think I am possibly more confused than when I asked the question

Only place I get any peace!

 

My money is on a garnet faceted in a south Asian back street on a primitive faceting machine. Why - the facets meet roughly - it's a bit too dark for glass - and it has been mounted slightly better than glue. All bets are off if you find bubbles in it under a microscope.

 

I have, they are amazing, but I believe they were first produced in the 1980s. So of no consequence to my 19th century jewellery.
The most modern ruby ring I have is 1930s. I have never tested the rubies, but they don't look Burmese anyway. The ring is Mexican Art Deco, so the rubies could be man made or Brazilian.

 

Old hand faceted glass from the back streets of Central or Eastern Europe, North Africa, Turkey or the Middle East will have that too. And red glass can be any shade.