Citrine
Hardness: 7
Birthstone: November
Anniversary: 13th and 17th |
It's quartz.
Specifically, it's quartz that's got a bit hot under the collar.
It seems that if you heat smokey quartz or amethysts then they take on a yellowish hue. the depth of the colour depends both on the colour of the crystal that you start with and the degree of heat that's applied and so the citrines that you'll find on the market range from pale yellows to deep vibrant browns. The mid range are known as 'golden citrines' and these mimic the better topazes.
Because of this, citrine has often been used as a cheaper substitute for topaz. Large citrines were set in many prized pieces from the Art Deco period between World Wars I and II, including the massive and elaborate Deco-inspired jewelry made for Hollywood stars like Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford in the 1930s. The relative cheapness of the material makes it a perfect choice for this sort of overstatement.
There are very few naturally occurring deposits of citrine and it seems likely that these to are amethysts that have been naturally heated by nearby geothermal activity. All the material that you'll find on the markets will have started off as low grade amethyst, mostly mined in Brazil, that has been heated artificially.
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