February Birthstone – AMETHYST

Hail, The World’s Most Popular Gem – AMETHYST!

Globally famous for getting intoxicated by the wearer, take delight in exploring the Gemstone Of The February.

Having strong roots to Quartz Family, it’s a purple to violet to dark purple quartz with Hardness 7 on Moh`s Hardness scale. It is a composition of silica with iron as an impurity that imparts all shades of purple in it depending on intensity and colour absorption by light.

Amethyst is classified further as per the shade. It occurs in primary hues from a light lavender or pale violet colour to dark purple colour. From very faint purple to reminiscent of lavender to lilac colour, it gets categorized as Rose de France or simply RDF as known in the market. Light purple is sold as Light Amethyst and the darker, richer is sold as Amethyst. Translucent to opaque blocks with ghostly appearance with white patches are sold as Phantom Amethyst. Prasiolite or Green Amethyst is a quartz variety that is normally treated as quartz and not amethyst.

This worldly-famous name Amethyst is derived from the Greek name Amethystos. The premium-quality Amethyst can be only found in Siberia, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Zambia and Uruguay. Otherwise, it is found worldwide in medium to low quality.

The faceted cut stones are mixed cut (of Brilliant top and Kamal cut pavilion) are marketed as Birthstones Jewellery while in costume to concept jewellery, people prefer cabochons, fancy cuts, beads, briolette and carved.

Amethyst Boulder or a geode that adds soothing to the ambiance in a well-decorated lawn or an art gallery as it is known to create positivity as per Feng Shui.

Bi-colored quartz, very famously known as Ametrine – proportionately Amethyst and Citrine, are in demand as exotic quartz. Majorly found in Brazil, the mine bearing Ametrine rough is getting depleted and so synthetic versions are also available in the market. Natural Ametrine is normally available in lighter shades and frequently loses their bi-color character on heating. The concave cut gives a darker appearance (illusion) from face up and is liked by many as the center stone in pink gold jewellery.

Amethyst Trapiche has found its own market in collectors and exotic astone dealers. Hydrothermal Amethyst which is the lab-created counterpart of Amethyst is preferred more in costume jewellery with a Brass metal base.

Light colour rhodolite, amethyst glass, tourmaline, scapolite, purple sapphire are stimulants or look-alike stones.

Author: Rajesh Patel.

The author is a gemologist, mentor, teacher & majorly deals in Gemstone Materials.