A real Amethyst will have color zoning rather than being one block color. The color of Amethyst is usually a purple or violet hue. Some stones will be so dark that they appear a wine-shaded red or black and others are pale as lavender and shot with shades of white and blue.
Ametrine, for example, is the marriage of Citrine and Amethyst which leads to sharp banding on the gem. Amethyst Quartz can also have milky and translucent shading especially around the bottom of the crystal. When you hold the quartz crystal up to the light, you may catch sight of all the different shades swimming and glinting beneath the faceted surface. This is a sign of a true Amethyst.
If you have a faux Amethyst quartz, then it could be a crystal shot with a dye to look like the real thing.
This happens when jewelers or sellers try to pass off similar-looking quartz pieces as Amethyst and seal cracks with injected dye to hide any signs of fakery. If you want to check if the quartz is an authentic Amethyst or not, look closely at the gem and see if there are any areas where the cracks have small qualities of pigments. Amethyst geodes and quartzes that have a very intense color are also likely to have been dyed. Gems and minerals are often formed in intense environments with plenty of pressure and high heat.
Amethyst is a quartz stone meaning that you are more likely to see threads beneath the surface rather than bubbles. In fact, in quartz - bubbles and discolorations would actually be quite rare. If you hold your Amethyst up to the light, you should be able to glance right through it without seeing bubbles or big discoloration.
Amethysts can come in many different shapes as it's an easy stone to cut. Another common cut for true Amethyst is the rounder shape as jewelers will do this to hide any imperfections in the original.
If you buy a cut Amethyst it will usually have a smooth polished finish. Check out our Amethyst Energy Bracelet. It takes a little longer to figure out but it's definitely worthwhile if you want to be absolutely sure.
You are going to need a set of scales, some water, and a beaker for measuring. While genuine amethyst comes from the mines of Russia, Africa and South America, synthesized amethyst first appeared during World War II, produced by the process of hydrothermal crystal growth.
This synthetic crystal replicates the violet color of the real thing very closely, meaning that a convincing base color alone is not a strong enough indication of natural amethyst. In fact, some varieties of synthetic amethyst can even replicate natural amethyst's color zoning -- an uneven distribution of color that gives gem stones deeper hues in some areas and lighter shades in others.
However, color zoning in synthetic amethyst is typically more irregular, with a more stark difference between hues. Holding an amethyst up to the light reveals many clues that can help determine whether the stone is natural or synthetic.
When light filters through natural amethyst, it often creates a prism-like effect, which doesn't occur in synthetic varieties. Other features exclusive to natural amethyst include a feather- or fingerprint-like texture viewable on the inside of the quartz and the presence of light and dark bands known as tiger or zebra stripes. Likewise, natural amethyst sometimes features yellow-hued cacoxenite, which occurs as tiny, sheaf-shaped crystals within the stone.
As you consider this translucent stone under light and magnification, flaws serve as a key indicator of natural quartz; synthetic stones are often crystal clear while the real deal features small imperfections.
In particular, inclusions indicate natural amethyst. Royals and nobles sported it proudly. It even ended up in many a country's crown jewels.
It remained an expensive stone, reserved only for the fortunate, right up until ginormous deposits were found in South America in the s. Once those mines started producing, amethyst became available in copious quantities, and now you can buy some really nice specimens for the price of a gourmet coffee or few.
Good news for those who want a bit of their birthstone for their own selves, isn't it? Even without those sources, amethyst is fairly easy to track down, even if gem-quality specimens are less abundant. It's found most places where quartz ends up: in both extrusive and intrusive igneous rocks, in metamorphosed rocks especially in alpine-type fissures , hydrothermal veins, rocks deposited by hot springs, and even some sedimentary rocks.
Same radiation that creates your basic Incredible Hulks. Instead of the big green guy, they could've gone with purple and it would've been science. See, you can have clear quartz that has iron substituting for some of the silica in its crystal lattice. It might have just as much iron as amethyst does, but without some nice radiation, it won't show off its amethystine potential. But don't worry — it doesn't take Hulk-sized doses of gamma rays to form our gorgeous purple gems. Just the natural bits will do, which is why amethyst is so much more abundant in igneous than sedimentary rocks.
Igneous rocks like basalt have trace amounts of radioactive minerals like radium , thorium , potassium 40, and uranium That lovely purple, shading from the palest lilac to good deep violet and royal hues, is what gives amethyst its common name.
Ancient Greeks thought it looked rather like wine, and from there flights of fancy took off and led them and the Romans to think that maybe the gem could be used to ward off drunkenness. So, they named it amethystos , the Koine Greek word for "not intoxicated. Chances are they got drunk regardless, but at least they did so in style.
If you look closely at amethyst crystals, you'll probably see that the tips are generally darker than the bases. We're pretty sure that's due to the iron mix in the water changing as the crystal slowly grows. If you have the right equipment, you could see that the colorless or pale bits of the crystal don't have much iron in, while the iron content increases as you get to the darker portions. There still won't be a lot of iron, though - maybe about ten to a hundred parts per million.
That little bit of iron does some pretty wild things to the color depending on what sort of radiation it's exposed to, and in what amounts.
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