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Gemstones Fact Sheet

Amethyst
Purple Quartz
Amethyst is the birthstone for February

Quartz, found in rocks of all ages and many ore deposits, is the most common of all minerals. Amethyst is the most highly
valued stone in the quartz group. It was believed to bring its wearer luck and protect against magic.
It is said to symbolize sincerity. It was used as a charm by the Greeks to prevent drunkenness!
Quartz is a very important rock-forming mineral, being an essential component of many igneous,
metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. Amethyst crystals always grow from a base.
The most important amethyst deposits are in Brazil, Uruguay, and Madagascar.
Although it is considered a semi-precious stone, amethyst is consistently among the best sellers,
alongside precious stones such as sapphire, ruby, and emerald. No doubt, this is due to its very appealing purple color.

Other stones in the quartz group include:

Citrine - yellow to orange and brown
Smoky Quartz - often erroneously called "smoky topaz", gray-brown
Rock Crystal – colorless
Rose Quartz – pink
Crystalline varieties with inclusions:
Rutilated Quartz- contains rutile crystals
Tiger-eye - usually striped, brown and gold
Aventurine – spangled with mica or hematite, green or gold brown
Cryptocrystalline varieties:
Chalcedony - cloudy blue, white, gray
Carnelian - reddish brown
Agate - various colors, banded or layered
Onyx - agate, most commonly dyed black
Jasper - various colors, usually striped or spotted
Chrysoprase - pastel green to apple green
Bloodstone - (Heliotrope) very dark green with spots of red

Also:
Agatized wood - also known as petrified wood
Opal – although unlike any other -see entry under opal

Gemology:
Mohs’ Hardness: 7
Specific Gravity: 2.63-2.65
Chemical composition: SiO2 silicon dioxide
Refractive Index: 1.544-1.553
Crystal System: Hexagonal (trigonal); hexagonal prisms

EMERALD
Green Beryl

Emerald is the birthstone for May.
Emerald is the most precious of the beryl group (aquamarine is also beryl).
The name "emerald" seems to have come from the Persian word for "green stone".

Emeralds are usually considered to be more precious than diamonds. This is due to a large part to their scarcity. Beryllium, an element necessary to form emeralds, is very rare.
Because of the way they grow, emeralds often contain inclusions; bubbles, healing cracks, "carbon" flecks, and foreign crystals. These are not necessarily faults, and they can indicate the genuineness of the stone. A perfectly clean emerald is almost unheard of!

For thousands of years, almost all of emeralds came from Egypt. "Cleopatra’s Mines" worked first by the Egyptians, then by the Romans and the Turks, were in nearly continuous operation from about 330 B.C. to 1237 A.D. "This monopoly lasted until the Spanish conquistadores arrived in South America in the early part of the 16th century. Shortly afterward, Jimenez de Quesada conquered what is now known as Colombia. Some years later, in 1558, the Spaniards located a mine at Muzo. The emeralds found there were breathtaking in both quality and size. The Spaniards promptly seized control of the mine and enslaved the local population using them to do the exhausting, dangerous work of digging out the gems. Within a few years, a veritable flood of big, almost flawless emeralds reached Europe, many of them finding their way into the hands of the Ottoman Turks, the Persian Shahs, and even the royalty of India. These stones were sculpted and engraved, becoming the foundation for many priceless jewel collections."-Awake! magazine February 22, 1999