The question: how big is $4 500 000 (contemporary USD) worth of rubies? At that price, would I have one large ruby, or several smaller ones? (Or several large ones?) If these rubies would be way too large to set comfortably in any of the aforementioned types of jewellery, would diamonds work better? Is there another gemstone I'm overlooking?
If it's important, the jewel(s) were set into a necklace (or what have you) circa 1916.