Although quartz is one of the most popular minerals in jewelry, there are several types of quartz, each with shapes and colors that make them attractive and sought after. But for the most part we can get them at affordable prices, however, some specimens of this family stand out as the most beautiful and sought after.
If you love precious stones as much as we do, then the following list with the most beautiful types of quartz will surely be to your liking.
crystal quartz
Despite being the second most common mineral in the Earth’s continental crust, simple quartz is a true wonder of nature. It is made of tiny oxygen and silicon tetrahedrons, which are also the two most common elements in our planet’s crust. With its elegant simplicity, quartz has fascinated scientists and artists alike since ancient times.
Quartz itself is colorless and transparent (or translucent, to be precise), but it often has impurities that make it more colorful. This is how we can end up with violet, yellow or even smoky colored quartz.
Amethyst – purple quartz
Among the types of quartz, amethyst is perhaps the best known and most striking variety of this family of stones. Amethyst has been admired for millennia. There are references to the ancient Greeks and Romans who believed it prevented you from getting intoxicated (they even made drinking glasses out of it). In fact, the Greek word “amethystos” can be translated as “not drunk”, from the Greek a – (a prefix for ‘not’) and methustos (intoxicated). The ancient Egyptians and Romans also used amethyst as a gemstone.
Amethyst’s color range runs from a soft lavender to a deep purple. Amethyst can fade in hue if overexposed to light, and can also be artificially darkened by proper irradiation; some sellers use this to make the crystals more attractive. Amethyst can also be grown synthetically and the end result is almost indistinguishable from the real thing. Artificial amethysts have impurities or lack of clarity, and their color also tends to be uniform, while natural amethyst has a variable color.
There is still some debate surrounding its exact chemistry and what gives it its distinctive tone. We know that it has the composition of SiO2 (like all varieties of quartz), but the impurities that give it its violet color remain a matter of discussion. The most likely possibilities are ferric iron or an interaction of iron and aluminum, and organic material has even been found in some crystals.
Until about 300 years ago, amethyst was held in the highest esteem among gemstone enthusiasts, along with diamonds and rubies. But since then many large mines have been found, especially in Brazil, South Korea and Austria. Even so, this type of quartz remains the favorite of many and it is not difficult to understand why.
Citrine – yellow quartz
Among the types of quartz that we can find, citrine is the yellow variety. Its name means lemon in Latin, and it can be formed by two different mechanisms: in the ferrous variety, iron or iron oxide absorbs radiation (from ultraviolet to blue). The second mechanism, although the specifics are still unclear, is known to be caused by aluminum, lithium, or hydrogen inclusions.
Citrine was also mentioned in ancient Greece, where it was used as a gemstone, although it was not as highly sought after as amethyst. In more recent times, it was considered to bring good fortune to merchants, and various superstitions are attached to it. Also like amethyst, the exact cause of the yellow hue is still debated.
Despite being less popular than amethyst, citrine is one of the rarer types of quartz. In fact, many sellers heat amethyst at high temperatures until it turns yellow and sell it as citrine. It can be difficult to distinguish citrine from heated amethyst; the best way to tell the difference (although not usually available) is to look at the crystals in polarized light: citrine is dichroic in polarized light (it absorbs different polarizations in different ways) while amethyst is not.
smoky quartz
It is easy to guess why smoky quartz was given this name; the color varies from brown to black, giving the vague impression that there is smoke within the ore. It can be obtained naturally or artificially. It also has two varieties: Morion and Cairngorm.
Smoky quartz is typically found in pockets around igneous rocks. It can range from a light smoky shade to a deep, almost brown/black color. However, not all dark quartz is smoky quartz. Like citrine, smoky quartz exhibits dichroism in polarized light.
Pink quartz
Rose quartz ranges in color from light pink to rose red, usually due to titanium or iron (although manganese may also be present). It is rarely used as a gem because in the vast majority of cases it has many impurities; It is mainly used to carve animals, hearts, etc. However, when it’s clear, it’s quite charming.
Rose quartz can be hazy, translucent, or anything in between. This is due to microscopic fibrous inclusions of a pink borosilicate mineral. Its pinkish hue is thought to be caused by aluminum and phosphorous atoms replacing silicon in the crystal lattice.
Prasiolite – green quartz
Prasiolite, also called vermarine, is a green variety of quartz. Most «prasiolite» sold today is heated to amethyst, but not so hot that it becomes citrine. Almost all natural prasiolite comes from a small Brazilian mine, although it has also been discovered in Poland. It is probably the rarest type of quartz on this list.
Chalcedony
Most types of quartz have macroscopic crystals, but chalcedony is different: it is a form called cryptocrystalline, which means that the crystals exist, but are only visible microscopically. This is generally known as microcrystalline quartz in geology.
Because chalcedony has numerous varieties, gem dealers refer to each one by name. However, if you plan on getting one, be careful: many sellers simply stain the stone, and it can be difficult for the untrained eye to tell because it can have a wide range of colors.
Chalcedony also frequently converts into pseudomorphs after organic materials, resulting in petrified wood (in Arizona, an entire forest has been petrified this way), coral, etc. Among the most beautiful types of chalcedony we have agate, carnelian and heliotrope also known as bloodstone.