February Birthstone: Amethyst

Coveted in Europe for many centuries for adorning both royal family jewels and religious embellishments. Studies on this beautiful gem have found it has been used since ancient times, the Egyptians had been using it for beads and carvings dating back to 3100 B.C. (around 25,000 years ago).

It was also highly regarded by the ancient Greeks as a talisman to ward off drunkenness, while ancient Romans used it for personal seal rings. Then in the Middle Ages it decorated royal crowns and papal rings (rings of popes). Legend has it that wearers of Amethyst are kept level headed and quick witted in battle.

Colour range of natural amethyst going from strongly saturated violetish purple to reddish purple in fine quality stones to weak greyish violet in commercial quality. Colour is a result from colour centres caused by natural irradiation acting on trace elements of Iron in its crystal structure. The variations in strength of colour occurs due to the way it forms, where normally only the originating tip starts with the strongest colour and fades towards colourless at the opposing end. This fading of strength is not always gradual, resulting in many stones forming with noticeable colour zoning, or colour banding.

Very often you find higher value exceptional stones with “true” colour throughout. They  are rarer than stones that have had to be orientated in such a way that colour zoning is accounted for, essentially by altering the direction of growth during the faceting process to have these planes at an angle to the table of the final faceted stone. This can be seen most often by viewing the loose stone table down and rotating it on a white background.

Russia was once the main source of Amethyst, but by the turn of the last century new deposits were discovered in Brazil, Zambia and the US. These new sources created an abundance of all qualities of the gem and resulted in the once highly prized and valuable gem to become more readily available, as well as reducing its rarity and its value.

However high quality stones with “true” depth of colour throughout (I.e. without colour zoning visible face up) and with good strength of red and deep pink mosaic of colour in deep colour stones are always rarer and subsequently more desirable and valuable.

Zambian stones interestingly produce deep colour stones even in small sizes, where most other sources of Amethyst would normally mean small stones lack depth of colour, these stones however can be overly dark and tend to be more included than Brazilian or other source stones.  Brazilian rough is often larger in size than other sources, but due to the natural inclusions it can often be cut into “fantasy cuts” to remove these and produce interesting final shapes or carvings, which in themselves have their own desirability and can be quite valuable.

Delicate heating of overly dark stones can be done to lighten depth of colour, however stronger heating of the stone results in the gem Citrine. This is usually where Citrine originates, due to this heating process, Citrine rarely occurs naturally.

Along with Amethyst we should also comment on Ametrine, this is done by careful heating at one end of the gem causing the crystal colour zoning to change, resulting in stones having both colours present. The best & most highly prized of these are stones with both equally strong colours present with a sharp boundary between the two colours. This effect an also be taken advantage of to further show of in fantasy cut stones.

Natural Ametrine is incredibly rare but can occur, but this only comes from one source in the world Bolivia close to the Brazilian border. Legend has it that a Spanish conquistador discovered the location in 1600’s, but it was lost for more than three centuries. Ametrine began appearing on the market during the 1970’s from its re-discovery, this location also produces both Amethyst and natural Citrine.

So if your lucky enough to be born in the month of February and love Amethyst this would be an amazing stone choice for your jewellery. Or maybe you are planning a gift for a friend, family member or partner and want to make it extra special. Use their birthstone to show the care and thought put into your choice. If you want something a little more eye catching maybe invest in something a little bit different with an Ametrine, which could include your birthstone and that of November.

As always, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch.