Spinel is a beautiful natural gemstone with the hardness and toughness to make fine jewelry. It is one of the oldest known gems. In its finest red hue it resembles rubies. In fact, many of the gems in royal collections were believed to be rubies when in fact they were spinels. Spinel also has the distinction of being the first synthetically made gemstone. The synthetic spinel is used in many types of jewelry and the cost is very low. Unfortunately, this has had a negative effect on the publics view of spinel with many people being unaware that spinel is actually a natural gemstone.