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Is your amethyst real?
You have a feeling about your amethyst. Let's find out if you're right.
Amethyst is not one of the stones we see faked often, but it is still worth checking.
Amethyst itself is sold untreated. The treatment story runs the other way round. Most citrine in a shop window was amethyst until someone baked it, and so was most prasiolite, the green kind. If yours is still purple, nobody has touched it.
A photo gets you close. The test below makes you sure.
127 crystals catalogued1,524 readings written, one per stone per sign113 guides in the Journal
Option one
Upload a photo
Daylight, plain background, close enough to see the surface. Your phone strips the location off the photo before it ever leaves you.
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Option two
Tell us what it was sold as
Pick the name off the label. I will give you the test for that stone, and the cheap thing it usually gets swapped for.
Your stone
You said Amethyst.
A photo cannot feel how hard a stone is. Run the test below and you will know.
The test that settles it
Drag an edge across a piece of glass. Amethyst scratches it. Fluorite, much softer at 4 on the hardness scale, will not. Fluorite also breaks along flat faces that meet in an eight-sided shape, and they reflect like tiny mirrors. Then hold the stone up to a lamp. Real amethyst shows colour in straight angular bands. Dyed quartz looks dead uniform, with colour caught in the cracks.
Treatment
Amethyst itself is sold untreated. The treatment story runs the other way round. Most citrine in a shop window was amethyst until someone baked it, and so was most prasiolite, the green kind. If yours is still purple, nobody has touched it.
Confused with
Dyed quartz, fluorite, purple glass, lepidolite, charoite
quartz · SiO2 with Fe-related colour centres · Mohs 7
Now do the rest of your shelf. I name any stone from a photo, call out the fakes, and tell you what each one means for you. Free to start.
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A photo cannot feel weight or hardness. I tell you what the picture points to, then give you the test so you can be sure yourself.
Still not sure?
Scan your amethyst. It will tell you what it is in seconds, even when the answer is fake.
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Common questions
How can you tell if amethyst is real?
Drag an edge across a piece of glass. Amethyst scratches it. Fluorite, much softer at 4 on the hardness scale, will not. Fluorite also breaks along flat faces that meet in an eight-sided shape, and they reflect like tiny mirrors. Then hold the stone up to a lamp. Real amethyst shows colour in straight angular bands. Dyed quartz looks dead uniform, with colour caught in the cracks. A photo can only get you close. Treat a match as a strong hint, then run the test in your hands to be sure.
Is amethyst treated, dyed or heated?
Amethyst itself is sold untreated. The treatment story runs the other way round. Most citrine in a shop window was amethyst until someone baked it, and so was most prasiolite, the green kind. If yours is still purple, nobody has touched it.
What is amethyst confused with?
Dyed quartz, fluorite, purple glass, lepidolite, charoite.
What is amethyst made of?
Its formula is SiO2 with Fe-related colour centres, and it sits at 7 for hardness, where a steel knife is about 5.5. Scratching it against something you know is the cheapest way to catch a swap.
Still not sure?
Scan your stone. It will tell you what it is in seconds, even when the answer is fake.
Scan it, freeNo account · No card
Check the rest of your shelf
I name any stone from a photo, tell you if it has been baked or dyed, and read it against your real birth chart. Free to start.
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