How To Tell The Difference Between Citrine And Topaz

05 Nov Citrine and Topaz

Posted at eleven:38h in Birthstone

November has ii birthstones: topaz and citrine
It's extremely difficult to differentiate between cut citrine and yellow topaz with the naked middle, but they differ in hardness. Both accept a long and rich history, going back to before Roman times. Both are associated with mystical properties. And both are stunningly beautiful gemstones that have been adored past celebrities and royalty akin.
One other of import quality they share is that they are both very affordable gem stones. Although high quality topaz is more expensive than citrine.

Citrine has been loved throughout the ages
Merely although citrine tends to exist less expensive than topaz information technology's certainly no less desirable.
This stunning gemstone has enjoyed immense popularity throughout history. The Egyptians were amidst the start to observe this yellow stone and used the gems as talismans. The aboriginal Greeks loved its bright colours and they carved images into the stones, and Roman priests turned citrine into rings. And around 300 to 150 BC they were used on the handles of swords and daggers in Scotland.

Royally received
Jump forward to the 19th and 20th centuries and you'll find that the British Royalty are among citrine's biggest fans. Queen Victoria loved this gemstone and made it popular. Cartier created a citrine and diamond tiara for the coronation of King George Half-dozen in 1937 with a 62.35 carat emerald-cut citrine heart stone. Information technology'south not just British monarchy who adore citrine either. Royalty around the globe are enamoured by its charms: Queen Sirikit of Thailand owns a diamond and citrine tiara, Queen Sonja of Norway received a modern, metallic, citrine tiara for her 60th birthday and the Grand duchy of luxembourg Purple Family unit boasts a collection of citrine-adorned jewellery.

The celebs choice of jewellery
Of course it'due south not just royalty who are fans of citrine. It was very popular in the early 20th century in the Art Deco era. Hollywood stars embraced information technology, and movie icons like Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford were frequently seen wearing large, elaborately designed citrine-adorned jewellery.
In the 1940's Cartier were renowned for making some fabled pieces with dark and lite citrines – chichi, iconic and however valued today.
Fast frontwards to the nowadays and you'll see mod celebrities like Emma Watson, Naomie Harris, Kate Winslet, and Tara Reid wearing cute citrine jewellery at red-rug events. And Angelina Jolie donated a large citrine necklace to the Smithsonian Institution's National Gem Collection.

So what exactly is citrine? And where does it come up from?
Citrine, made up of silicon and oxygen, is a type of quartz, one of the about arable minerals to exist establish on the Earth's chaff. Information technology unremarkably forms in igneous rocks as magma cools – the slower the process the larger the crystals.
Its name comes from the word "citron", French for xanthous, the colour nigh frequently associated with this gemstone.
Chemically its very similar to amethyst (a violet color of quartz, and the birthstone for February), with the merely departure the rate of oxidization of their iron impurities.

Yellow is better than brown
The yellow colour of citrine is acquired by ferric impurities that plough it anything from pale yellow to brown, with the almost prized gemstones a warm yellow or peppery orange. It originates from countries like Brazil, Africa and Spain, although today we know information technology occurs all around the earth. Nonetheless xanthous citrine very rarely occurs naturally, and it is often heat treated.

What does citrine correspond?
Citrine is associated with fortune and luck. Information technology's sometimes chosen the 'Success Stone' or the 'Merchant's Stone' considering of its supposed connections to success and prosperity. Citrine is likewise believed by many to heighten vitality and wellness – and some use it as a healing crystal. It's claimed to better the circulatory organisation, and cleanse the blood, kidneys and vital organs. In Feng Shui citrine is said to help generosity and wealth. Whether there'south any truth or non in these claims, one matter is beyond dispute – it's a cute and affordable stone.

Hard but brittle
Citrine is a relatively hard with a Mohs rating of 7 – a scale of mineral hardness based on the ability of i mineral to visibly scratch another mineral, with diamond scoring a maximum ten, and talcum powder the minimum 1. Although it is relatively brittle and particularly sensitive to sudden changes in temperature. Similarly, prolonged exposure to lite can cause its colour to fade.

Inclusions not included
Citrine is unremarkably found with very few inclusions, and the best quality gemstones should have no inclusions to the naked eye. If it's natural information technology volition be the same colour all the manner through, with only slight colour variations. On the other paw, if it'due south been heat treated from amethyst at that place will often be an opaque white in it, usually at the base.

Is it a cut above the rest?
You've probably heard of the 4Cs (colour, cut, clarity and carat weight), used past jewellers to establish the value of a precious or semi-precious stone.

Yous might exist less aware that the Cs have more relevance depending on which stone is existence evaluated. For example, with a diamond or sapphire the carat weight is hugely important in determining the price of the stone. Whereas with citrine, the cut becomes i of the more than important indicators of value. And with many of the more intricately carved gems nearly of the value is created by the quality of the cut.

The colour of money
Color is an important indicator of value too. The near precious citrine stones are ones with the most saturated yellowish, orange, and reddish tones. The less intense the color, the less valuable the gem.

Size doesn't matter as much
Different the precious stones such as sapphires and diamonds, in that location isn't an exponential bound in value as citrine increases in carat size. In other words, the value per carat remains abiding. Big citrine stones aren't rare, and so it won't cost a phenomenal amount if you decide yous want to buy a big precious stone.

Topaz can look like to citrine – only information technology'southward a different toll
It's no surprise that topaz is Nov'southward other gemstone, because it's frequently dislocated with citrine. But if y'all're buying topaz information technology's important to make sure information technology isn't citrine, because topaz tends to be the more valuable of the two stones.

What a gas!
Similar citrine, topaz is created in igneous rock. However, information technology's one of the last minerals to be formed equally the rock cools and fluorine-bearing vapours go more than concentrated. These gasses enrich fluids in the rock and over fourth dimension – perhaps millions of years – topaz begins to course.

Topaz? Or not topaz?
Although at that place can't be certainty, it'due south thought that the gemstone which mod mineralogists label 'topaz' was unknown by the oldest civilisations.
Today it's believed that a stone they referred to equally "topaloz" was in fact a different mineral – peradventure chrysolite or peridot. Only whether information technology was topaz or an imposter, the ancient Egyptians believed it was created by the sun god Ra because of its gilded hues, and as a result it had magical healing backdrop. The Romans thought the stone could protect them from poison – the legend went that the gem would modify colour if it was most poisoned food or drink.
In that location are references to "topaz" in the Former Attestation likewise, just they likewise may take been referring to chrysolite, rather than modernistic day topaz.

Topaz hits the big time
The first yellow crystals that tin confidently be recognised as mod-twenty-four hours topaz stones were discovered in Germany, in 1737.
Just three years later in 1740, a massive 1,680 carat topaz gem was found in Brazil. But even and then it was mistaken for some other gem, at the time information technology was believed to exist the largest diamond ever plant. And it was impressive enough to be given a prominent place on the Portuguese crown. Even when it was identified every bit a topaz it kept its identify, proudly displayed there to this nowadays day.

The heavyweight of gemstones
Many topaz stones are too big to exist worn as jewellery, but instead y'all'll find them exhibited in various museums around the world. In London's National Museum of History of London, yous can run across the Ostra Topaz, a of nine,381 carat blueish topaz, and in the Castilian, Programa Imperial Collection there are many enormous gemstones, like the 8,225 carat Marbella Topaz.The "El–Dorado" crudetopaz discovered in Minas Gerais, Brazil in 1984, and was 36 kilo / 79 pounds when it was weighed. Afterwards cutting 6.2 kilos or virtually 14 pounds was left., making it the largest facetedtopaz and gemstone in the world.

Topaz is well known for its abundant use in Georgian jeweller effectually the early on 1800s. Information technology was extremely popular for its use in the delicate, feminine gold jewellery in fashion at the fourth dimension.

The colours of topaz
In nature, topaz is oft colourless which causes it to be confused with diamonds. It can come in other colours though, most oftentimes a golden brown to xanthous that tends to be stable, and is generally unaffected by chemicals. A variety of impurities and treatments may also make topaz wine red, stake grey, reddish-orangish, pale greenish, or pinkish (rare), and opaque to translucent or transparent. The pink and crimson varieties come from chromium replacing aluminium in its crystalline structure.

Everyone loves the blues
Nowadays information technology is perhaps nigh famous for its bluish colour. And because blue topaz comes in large crystals, is extremely popular in cocktail rings and other large items of jewellery. Dissimilar many other gems, the color in natural topaz isn't caused by elements like iron or chromium simply rather past defects in its crystal structure. But blue topaz is extremely rare in nature, nearly all bluish topaz is created by first irradiation and so heat treatment, with the ii favourite variations a lightly coloured 'Swiss Blue' and a much darker 'London Blueish'. Equally a rule of thumb, the darker the blue the higher the price. Pink topaz is also a colour change accomplished by heating xanthous topaz.

Topaz is found all over the globe
What's beyond dispute is that tourmaline displays the widest spectrum of colour of any gemstone, because of the presence of elements such as The finest British examples are in the Cairngorm Mountains in the Central Highlands. Germany boasts pale yellow topaz rock of the Schneckenstein. It'due south besides in several localities in the Urals and in Siberia. Brazil, renowned for fine topaz stones, is where most of modern-24-hour interval mining occurs and information technology's been discovered almost Pikes Top, Colorado, and in San Diego canton, California.

Regal topaz – rarest and most precious of all
The rarest topaz is a multifariousness called Imperial topaz, occasionally referred to equally Precious topaz.
Never treated and considered to exist the colour of the setting sun, it'south the nigh sought-after, natural topaz. The name comes from the Russian tsars of the 17^th century, considering the tsars claimed exclusive rights to the pink topaz gemstones that were mined in Russia.

It's all in the colour
Even so there is no official standard for Imperial topaz and the term is primarily chosen considering of its colours which give this gemstone its value, reaching prices in excess of $ane,000 a carat for big stones of over ten carats or more, in contrast to some bluish topaz at the bottom of the market place which tin can toll only a couple of dollars per carat.

From Russian federation with honey
Today the primary source of Imperial topaz is no longer Russia but the mines of Minas Gerais in Brazil.

Royal topaz was traditionally considered to exist orangish with something called reddish dichroism (which means that when you tilt it the topaz appears scarlet or orange) merely nowadays is more than widely defined as yellow, pinkish, red, lavander-pink or peach-pinkish.

Conscientious how you pick it up
Traditionally open pit mines are also used to excerpt topaz, but because information technology is very easy to crack, water cannons are used to articulate out debris during the process. Topaz is so carefully extracted past manus-picked from the shattered rocks.

It'southward hard, only it cracks very easily
Topaz crystals accept something chosen "perfect cleavage". That means it tends to break in a certain way, along a specific plainly, and is why information technology is often institute in sections rather than whole crystals. It's also quite fragile, fifty-fifty though it is one of the hardest gems with a register of 8 on the Mohs scale. Because of this fragility jewellery designers avoid placing topaz in rings unless information technology's in a protective mounting with lots of metal. Instead they prefer to identify pieces that are less likely to avoid impact. Such equally pedants and pins.

Citrine? Topaz? Or why not both?
If you now know a little more near citrine and topaz is it easier to determine which 1 is right for y'all or to requite as a gift? They are both beautiful stones, just they are likewise both very affordable. So if you're in a dilemma, why not consider a piece that is fabricated from both gemstones? They work beautifully together in a pedant or a combination necklace.

Turn to a traditional jeweller
Whether yous're interested in citrine, topaz, or whatsoever kind of gem or bonny rock, it'due south always safer to seek the advice of a traditional jeweller like John Lloyd Morgan for guidance.

Source: https://johnlloydmorgan.com/topaz-and-citrine/