QUESTION ABOUT ID

[shaman15771]

Can someone tell be the difference between Citrine and Smokey Quartz? Is it just color?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

DR.ÖTEK Metal Detector, Waterproof Gold Detector, Pinpoint & Terrain Modes, Professional Metal Detector - Grab it through Amazon!

[DDancer]

Smoky quartz is created by interaction with natural radiation. In essence its a burnt crystal. Citrine is quartz with iron impurities and is not very common. Its an inaccurate definition made by many people to define yellow quartz as Citrine. I've seen many examples of smoky quartz that have been labled as Citrine as well as quartz specimens that are stained by mineralization that have a yellow cast. Smoky quartz and amethyst can be heat treated to create Citrine colored gems.
I'm not saying true citrine can not be found. Its just unusual to find it in any quantity. To date I've not found any citrine crystals but I have found some good candidates in massive quartz specimens that I plan to one day cut on.

 

[shaman15771]

How can you tell the difference? I think I mentioned how much quartz we have. Also, a lot of hematite (I think. It's in ropes of black in some of the quartz) I need to post more pictures so you know what I'm talking about. I initially thought the hematite might have seen silver but don't think so as it's magnetic. We do have quite a bit of quartz that the color runs from light yellow to orange to brown. Can you tell by hardness?

 

[DDancer]

Here's a good page with some basic information on citrine. The Quartz Page: Citrine

The article describes true citrine as having a dichroic appearance. What this means is that when viewed the crystal exhibits two colors when viewed from different angles due to the distribution of other minerals, in this case iron, in the crystals matrix.

All in all it comes down to whether you wish to call a yellow quartz citrine or not. Cutting and polishing the material then investigation of the stone under magnification and good lighting will tell you if the material coloring the stone is uniform enough to consider the sample citrine.

 

[shaman15771]

Thanks DD, that will be a lot of help. Will try to upload some pictures so you all can see what I'm talking about. As a newbie, the only way to get answers is to ask questions. LOL