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Significant Properties of Coral

Coral's continuing popularity is partly due to the range of pretty colors it comes in, making it ideal for jewelry. People who are knowledgeable about the healing power of various gemstones wear coral for its specific healing properties. Like pearls, coral is a sea gem and living organisms play a vital role in its creation.

Physical Properties
- Coral is essentially carbonate of lime from the skeletons of marine polyps. The polyps have a gelatinous body that excretes a carbonic substance that forms coral's characteristic tree-like structure. The coral has an internal structure much like the bones of vertebrates. Coral usually forms in warm waters at depths of between 10 and 500 feet. The composition of gem-quality coral is calcium carbonate with about three percent magnesium carbonate, iron traces and organic matter. Coral is either semi-translucent or opaque, and has specific gravity of 2.65 and a refractive index of between 1.486 and 1.658. On the Mohs scale for gemstone hardness, it is between 3.5 and 4.
Precious Coral
- The only coral used for jewelry is Corallium rubrum. This coral belongs to the Gorgonidae family of the group Alcyonaria. Although coral is found around the world, the Mediterranean waters around Corsica and Sicily are the source of the red and rose-pink coral that is much in demand for jewelry. Coral grows in colonies and attaches itself to any object on the seabed. Growing coral has been found attached to cannonballs and human skulls as well as rocks.
Color
- Gem coral occurs in a range of colors. As well as the familiar pink, orange and red, coral comes in black, violet, blue, gold and white. Black coral is the national gemstone of Hawaii, which specializes in producing black coral jewelry. Deep red coral usually has a more even coloration than the pink and orange varieties, which is why it is in higher demand for necklaces, rings and earrings.
Healing Properties
- Coral is thought to heal the circulatory system and is worn to treat blood-related diseases. In the Indian Vedic scriptures, coral is one of the stones representing the nine planets in the solar system, and its planet is Mars. It is used by some people to treat conditions associated with the planet Mars, such as coughs, cold and fever. According to gemstone experts at Gehna Bazaar, mount coral in a silver ring and wear it on the ring finger for maximum healing effect.

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