Mineral Guides

Quick answer: “amethyst” comes from the ancient Greek amethystos, built from a- (“not”) and methys (“wine”), so it means roughly

Quick answer: the mineral most often mistaken for quartz is calcite, followed by white feldspar in rocks, glass in shops,

Quick answer: the navaratna (“nine gems” in Sanskrit) is a traditional set of nine stones, each linked to one of

Quick answer: the most famous gemstones in the world include the Hope Diamond, the Cullinan, the Koh-i-Noor, the Star of

Quick answer: when people talk about “the 7 healing stones,” they almost always mean the seven chakra stones: one stone

Quick answer: the Bible names two sets of twelve stones. The first is the breastplate of the high priest in

Quick answer: the phrase “1,000 times rarer than diamonds” almost always refers to tanzanite, and it is a marketing line

Quick answer: Agate, jasper, and carnelian are all chalcedony: quartz made of microscopic crystals. Agate is translucent and banded, jasper

Quick answer: Most citrine sold today is heat-treated amethyst: heating purple amethyst, mostly from Brazil, to roughly 400 to 500

Quick answer: Bismuth’s stepped rainbow crystals are grown by melting refined bismuth metal and letting it cool. The edges of