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Is your amethyst real?
Amethyst is not one of the stones we see faked often, but it is still worth checking. Scratches glass; fluorite (4) does not and shows flat octahedral cleavage faces that reflect like tiny mirrors. Genuine amethyst shows angular colour zoning under a light; dyed quartz shows colour trapped in fractures and a dead-uniform body. Sold untreated as amethyst. Note the reverse case: amethyst is the raw material heated to make most commercial 'citrine' and most 'prasiolite'. A photograph gets you most of the way; the physical test settles it.
Option one
Upload a photo
Daylight, plain background, close enough to see the surface. Your photo is resized and stripped of location data on your device before anything is sent.
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Option two
Tell us what it was sold as
Pick the name on the label and we will give you the physical test for that stone, and the imitation it is most often swapped for.
Your stone
You said Amethyst.
A photograph cannot measure hardness, streak or density. Run the test below to be certain.
The test that settles it
Scratches glass; fluorite (4) does not and shows flat octahedral cleavage faces that reflect like tiny mirrors. Genuine amethyst shows angular colour zoning under a light; dyed quartz shows colour trapped in fractures and a dead-uniform body.
Treatment
Sold untreated as amethyst. Note the reverse case: amethyst is the raw material heated to make most commercial 'citrine' and most 'prasiolite'.
Confused with
dyed-quartz, fluorite, purple-glass, lepidolite, charoite
quartz · SiO2 with Fe-related colour centres · Mohs 7
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A photograph cannot measure hardness, streak or specific gravity. We tell you what the visual signs suggest and give you the test to be certain yourself.
Common questions
How can you tell if amethyst is real?
Scratches glass; fluorite (4) does not and shows flat octahedral cleavage faces that reflect like tiny mirrors. Genuine amethyst shows angular colour zoning under a light; dyed quartz shows colour trapped in fractures and a dead-uniform body. A photograph cannot measure hardness, streak or specific gravity, so treat a visual match as a strong hint and run the physical test to be certain.
Is amethyst treated, dyed or heated?
Sold untreated as amethyst. Note the reverse case: amethyst is the raw material heated to make most commercial 'citrine' and most 'prasiolite'.
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 measures 7 on the Mohs scale. A hardness test against a known material is the cheapest way to rule out a substitute.
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