Citrine: Properties, Facts and Photos

What is Citrine?

Citrine is a relatively rare yellow variety of the mineral quartz. The majority of citrine being sold is heated amethyst.

Material labelled 'citrine' can also be smoky quartz, which may or may not have been heat-treated. When heated, smoky quartz loses colour, which can give it a yellow hue. Natural citrine also loses its colour when heated, but this can be reversed through irradiation.
  
Generally, it's quite easy to tell natural citrine from heated amethyst.

Natural citrine crystals exhibit a vitreous lustre and are transparent to translucent. The exact cause of the colour is still not fully understood. What is known is that trace amounts of aluminium cause some quartz crystals to turn yellow.

The colour of citrine can vary widely from pale yellow to yellowish-orange to orange-brown.

Heat treatments are also used to turn low-grade or pale-coloured citrine into smoky quartz or lemon quartz. Lemon quartz does not occur naturally. 

Citrine Facts and History

Citrine is the birthstone for November on the Traditional Birthstone Chart. On the Modern Birthstone Chart, it's an alternative for topaz.

Although some coloured varieties of quartz, including citrine, are often mistaken for topaz, they're two different minerals.

The reason for the confusion may be that until fairly recently, all translucent brown, orange and yellow-coloured gemstones were believed to be topaz. Even after the discovery that some stones had a different chemical composition, it took many years before the correct names started being widely used.

During the first and second centuries AD, the Greeks and Romans used citrine for intaglios. During the Middle Ages, citrine was believed to offer protection against snake venom and evil thoughts.

Historically, little is known about citrine because there are few references to it. This may be because of its rarity.

Like most varieties of quartz, citrine grades 7 on the Mohs scale of hardness.

When used as a gemstone, it tends to be faceted which maximises brilliance. When cut well, its value can increase significantly. 

Citrine deposits can be found in Madagascar, Spain, Uruguay, the Isle of Arran in Scotland, the Ural mountains of Russia, and the USA. The Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul is currently the world's largest supplier of natural citrine. Brazil is also the largest supplier of heated amethyst.

If citrine is left in direct sunlight the colour will fade, albeit very slowly.

Article Pictures

The citrine crystals at the top of our article is courtesy of Géry Parent.

The tumbled stones (both photos) are from our collection.

The citrine cluster in the last photo is from the Collier Creek Mine, Arkansas, USA.

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Topaz: Courtesy of Stan Celestian.