November

Citrine is the yellow to red-orange variety of crystalline quartz. Clever marketing and the rise of “earth tone” fashions have made this durable and readily available gem a popular modern birthstone in recent years.

A cousin of amethyst, citrine is also part of the quartz family. Citrine is predominantly associated with healing and happiness. Whether you’re having a stomach ache, suffering from insomnia, or just feeling stressed, citrines are thought to bring relief.

Citrines are famous for their warm orange and yellow hues, perhaps with some hints of brown. They can also come in large sizes. A notable proportion of citrines on the market come out of the ground as unimpressive amethysts or smokey quartzes. These stones are subsequently heated to enhance the yellow and orange colors.

The traditional November birthstone, topaz is a popular gem. Although frequently associated with golden yellow as well as blue, it can be found in a variety of colors, including colorless. The rarest are natural pink, red, and fine golden orange, sometimes with a pink tone.

Traditionally, all yellow, brown, and orange transparent gems were called topaz. With the advent of modern gemology, many of these stones were re-classified as different species.

Because of topaz’s long association with the color yellow, citrines are sometimes misidentified as topazes. However, citrine is a quartz, a distinct gem species. Topaz has different physical and optical properties than citrine, most notably greater hardness and brilliance.

Colorless, white, gray, pale to medium blue, greenish, yellow, yellow-brown, orange, pale pink, deep pink, tan, beige, red.

In the 1960’s, a two-step method was discovered to turn colorless topaz blue. First, the rough is irradiated, turning it brown. Then, the brown stone is heated to achieve a stable, blue color. The process so nearly duplicates what happens in the Earth, a treated stone cannot be distinguished from a natural.

Topaz that has undergone this treatment and been turned dark blue is sometimes used as a simulant for aquamarine. These are distinct gem species. However, since topaz is typically less expensive than aquamarine, consumers should be wary of unscrupulous vendors who may try to sell treated topaz as aquamarine.

Heat treatments are also used to change some yellow, orange, and brown topaz to pink or red. This procedure is common, stable, and undetectable.