Sapphire Trivia
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52 free Sapphire trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This sapphire trivia quiz covers the gemstone from every angle. The easy questions handle the basics most people half-know: which mineral it belongs to, where it sits on the Mohs scale, which month claims it as a birthstone and what its red sibling is called. From there it moves into what actually makes a sapphire blue, why some show a six-rayed star, what a padparadscha is and where the finest stones are mined. The harder end is for jewellery lovers, geology students and pub-quiz regulars: the 1964 museum heist that briefly lost the Star of India, the 733-carat black stone a family used as a doorstop, the sapphire in the British Crown Jewels that had to make way for the Cullinan II, the Montana gulch that produced America's finest blues, and the industrial side of the story, from Verneuil's flame-fusion process to the iPhone camera lens. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for the stone and the famous individual gems before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, our diamond, gemstone and geology quizzes are the natural next stop.
30 of 52 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Sapphire is a gem variety of which mineral?
Corundum
Corundum: it is so hard and weather-resistant that its crystals collect in river gravels, where miners sift out many sapphires.
Q 02Sapphire is the traditional birthstone for which month?
September
September: its birthstone has excellent toughness and no cleavage, so it holds up well in rings worn every day.
Q 03Sapphires that are any colour other than blue are known in the trade as what?
Fancy
They turn up in yellow, orange, green, purple and even colourless, though only the blue ones are what most people picture.
Q 04The rare sapphire variety padparadscha is named after the colour of which flower?
Lotus
Lotus blossoms inspired the name, a marketable label that at first went only to stones from Sri Lanka, before finds in Vietnam and East Africa.
Q 05A padparadscha sapphire is prized for which unusual blend of colours?
Pink-orange
Pink-orange shades are hard to describe, so buyers debate which stones deserve the padparadscha name, reaching for words like sunset, peach and salmon.
Q 06The star-like effect seen in a star sapphire is known by what name?
Asterism
Asterism comes from light reflecting off tiny needle-like inclusions lined up inside the crystal, which gather the reflections into a star.
Q 07The needle-like inclusions that create a star sapphire's star are most often which mineral?
Rutile
Rutile needles only throw a star when they are plentiful and lined up in a regular pattern inside the crystal, reflecting light along each line.
Q 08Star sapphires are usually cut into which shape so their star can show?
Cabochon
Cabochon stones are shaped into a smooth, polished dome, because the star would stay hidden inside a faceted cut.
Q 09Twelve-rayed star sapphires can form when the usual needle inclusions are joined by which second mineral?
Hematite
Hematite adds a golden star over the usual whitish one, and the two overlap into twelve rays, as in some star sapphires from Thailand.
Q 10Which Gilded Age tycoon gave the Star of India to a museum?
J. P. Morgan
J. P. Morgan had a gem expert assemble a collection for the 1900 Paris Exposition, then gave the whole collection away, star sapphire and all.
Q 11The Star of India is on display in which institution?
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History got the uninsured stone back in 1965, after one of the thieves led police to a bus-station locker in Miami.
Q 12The Star of India was stolen in 1964 by a gang whose best-known member went by which nickname?
Murph the Surf
Murph the Surf, Jack Murphy, had won trophies as a surfer before the heist, and after prison he spent decades working as a prison minister.
Q 13Why did the only alarm guarding the Star of India fail during the 1964 heist?
Its battery was dead
Q 21Which singer wore the 733-carat Black Star sapphire on television in 1971?
Cher
Cher wore it in a 1971 sketch, yet by 2010 the stone had never been worn again, surfacing only at occasional charity events.
Q 22Which country led world sapphire production by the 2000s, thanks to deposits around the town of Ilakaka?
Madagascar
Madagascar's sapphire rush began after a 1998 find near Ilakaka, turning a quiet rural village into a crowded boomtown within a few years.
Q 23In 1987, which country was the world's largest producer of sapphires?
Australia
Australia's sapphire fields produced little until large-scale mining began around 1960, yet by the 1980s the country was the world's biggest producer.
Its battery was dead, yet the thieves did not stay free for long: all three were arrested within two days.
Q 14The Logan Sapphire in the Smithsonian's gem collection is roughly the size of what?
A large chicken egg
A large chicken egg is about its size, and it once belonged to the wealthy Sassoon family of Bombay before diplomat Robert Guggenheim bought it as a present for his wife.
Q 15What does the 'Logan' in the Logan Sapphire refer to?
Its donor's married name
Its donor's married name came in 1962, when Rebecca Guggenheim wed John A. Logan, two years after she began giving the stone to the Smithsonian.
Q 16Which silent-film star bequeathed the Star of Bombay star sapphire to the Smithsonian?
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford left the stone to the Smithsonian when she died in 1979, and it later lent its name to Bombay Sapphire gin.
Q 17The label of Bombay Sapphire gin carries a portrait of which monarch?
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria suits a name drawn from the Raj, when British officers in India mixed gin into their bitter anti-malarial quinine tonic to make it drinkable.
Q 18Which singer's 2025 single 'Sapphire', sung partly in Punjabi, features Shah Rukh Khan in its video?
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran's 'Sapphire' was the first track for his album Play and set its direction, and he completed the album's recording in Goa with Indian musicians.
Q 19The Sri Lankan sapphire town of Ratnapura is known by which nickname?
City of Gems
City of Gems fits: the ground around Ratnapura is so rich that a 510 kg cluster of star sapphires turned up in 2021 when workmen were digging a well.
Q 20A black star sapphire picked up by a 12-year-old boy in 1938 served his family as what?
A doorstop
A doorstop, until jeweller Harry Kazanjian paid $18,000 for it in 1947, and the family built a new house with the money.
Q 24Sapphires from which origin command the highest premium in the gem trade?
Kashmir
Kashmir sapphires owe their prized velvety glow to very fine silk inclusions that scatter light and soften the look of the stone.
Q 25Which British princess's 2018 engagement ring is set with a padparadscha sapphire?
Princess Eugenie
Princess Eugenie later chose a low-backed wedding dress that showed the scar from the scoliosis surgery she had at 12.
Q 26Sapphire has been the official state gem of which Australian state since 1985?
Queensland
The state also gave its name to the famous 733-carat black star stone found there in 1938.
Q 27The prized Yogo sapphires are mined in which US state?
Montana
Montana's gold prospectors noticed blue pebbles among their gold at Yogo Gulch, but no one recognised them as sapphires until the 1890s.
Q 28Yogo sapphires are typically described as which shade of blue?
Cornflower
Cornflower-blue Yogos later passed into British hands: a London firm bought the mine in 1899, and it became known as the English Mine.
Q 29In the 1980s, Intergem marketed the Yogo as the world's only sapphire guaranteed to be what?
Untreated
Untreated Yogos were a safe promise, because the stones come out of the ground with even colour and clarity and need no heating to improve them.
Q 30In 1895, Jake Hoover's cigar box of Yogo stones was appraised by which New York firm?
Tiffany's
Tiffany's sent Hoover a check for $3,750 after its gem expert George Kunz examined the stones, yet Hoover soon sold his stake in the mine to other investors.