Citrine

Nature 3 Minutes

What Is Citrine?

Citrine is a transparent variety of quartz with a yellow to orange color. Its attractive color, high clarity, low price, and durability make it the most frequently purchased yellow to orange gem.

Citrine is also a modern birthstone for the month of November. Its designation as a birthstone contributes to its popularity and drives a large number of sales.

The Citrine Color Range

Citrine’s color ranges from yellow, to orangey yellow, to yellowish orange, to brownish orange. The name citrine is used for any transparent quartz in that color range – regardless of its saturation. Stones with a faint color and stones with a rich color are all called “citrine”.

The quality of a stone’s color has an enormous impact on its price. Stones with a faint color are abundant and inexpensive. Stones with a rich, uniform color are rare, valuable, and preferred by buyers.

Reddish orange and reddish brown are rare colors in quartz. Gems of these reddish colors are often called Madeira citrine. The name is after wines of similar color made in the Madeira Islands, an autonomous region of Portugal, located in the North Atlantic Ocean about 450 miles southwest of Portugal.

Birthstone of November

Citrine and topaz both serve as birthstones for the month of November. Topaz was one of the original modern birthstones selected by the National Association of Jewelers in 1912. Citrine was added to the modern birthstones list in 1952.

Citrine and topaz are both available in the yellow to orange color range, but citrine generally has a much lower cost. Citrine has a Mohs hardness of 7 and topaz has a Mohs hardness of 8. That information might make some people believe that topaz has a higher durability than citrine. However, topaz is a brittle mineral that easily breaks by cleavage. It has little, if any, durability advantage over citrine.

Citrine Geodes

One of the most impressive specimens of citrine that you might encounter is a large citrine geode from Brazil.  These are often offered for sale at major gem and mineral shows.  Gem hunters find these geodes in the Brazilian basalt fields, then clean and prepare them to stand as a crystal tower in your living room.  They can be two, or four, or six feet tall – or taller.

Surprisingly, they are not filled with orange to orangy brown citrine when they are found.  Instead, most are filled with purple amethyst crystals.  Somewhere between discovery and the consumer, a decision is made to heat the geodes in industrial ovens to convert the original purple amethyst into an orangy brown citrine.

Why convert a beautiful amethyst geode into a citrine geode?  Because many people who will not buy an amethyst geode will buy a citrine geode because they enjoy the orange color or because citrine is their birthstone.

Natural, Treated, Synthetic

Five categories of citrine exist in the gem and jewelry market. These are:

1. citrine with a natural color
2. citrine with a natural color, but enhanced by treatment
3. citrine produced by heating light amethyst
4. synthetic citrine (a man-made product)
5. imitation citrine (a man-made product that is not SiO2)

All of these are legitimate products; however, sellers should always inform the customer when they are selling gems that have been treated, gems that might have been treated, and especially when they are selling synthetic or imitation materials. Here are a few reasons why…

Natural Color Citrine

Quartz with a natural citrine color is rare. Some people want this natural-color citrine and are willing to pay a premium price for it.

Sources of Citrine

Small quantities of naturally colored citrine are found at many locations throughout the world. The frequency of its occurrence is demonstrated by the locality maps at mindat.org.

The most important commercial source of citrine with a natural yellow to orange color are the pegmatites of eastern Brazil. Other countries where citrine has been produced include: Argentina, Bolivia, Madagascar, Mexico, Russia, Spain, and Uruguay.

The most important source of amethyst that is heat treated to produce a citrine color is also eastern Brazil. Russia is the most important source of synthetic citrine.

Ametrine

Ametrine is a bicolor quartz that has zones of golden yellow citrine and deep purple amethyst in contact with one another in a single crystal. The origin of the name is a combination of AMEthyst and ciTRINE to yield “ametrine.”

Ametrine is a rare gem, with most of the world’s commercial ametrine production from the Anahi Mine in southeastern Bolivia. The mine produces a variety of ametrine, amethyst, citrine, rock crystal, and bicolor gems.

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Published by pat frederick

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132 thoughts on “Citrine”

  2. “Judge rules it’s fine for car makers to intercept your text messages”
    Posted: November 9, 2023 by Pieter Arntz

    ENTIRE ARTICLE @ Malwarebytes: “A federal judge has refused to bring back a class action lawsuit that alleged four car manufacturers had violated Washington state’s privacy laws by using vehicles’ on-board infotainment systems to record customers’ text messages and mobile phone call logs. The judge ruled that the practice doesn’t meet the threshold for an illegal privacy violation under state law. The plaintiffs had appealed a prior judge’s dismissal.

    Car manufacturers Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, and General Motors were facing five related privacy class action suits. One of those cases, against Ford, had been dismissed on appeal previously. Infotainment systems in the company’s vehicles began downloading and storing a copy of all text messages on smartphones when they were connected to the system. Once messages have been downloaded, the software makes it impossible for vehicle owners to access their communications and call logs but does provide law enforcement with access, the lawsuit said.

    The Seattle-based appellate judge ruled that the interception and recording of mobile phone activity did not meet the Washington Privacy Act’s (WPA) standard that a plaintiff must prove that “his or her business, his or her person, or his or her reputation” has been threatened.

    In a recent Lock and Code podcast, we heard from Mozilla researchers that the data points that car companies say they can collect on you include social security number, information about your religion, your marital status, genetic information, disability status, immigration status, and race. And they can sell that data to marketers.

    This is alarming. Given the increasing number of sensors being placed in cars every year, this is becoming an increasingly grave problem. In the same podcast, we also explored the booming revenue stream that car manufacturers are tapping into by not only collecting people’s data, but also packaging it together for targeted advertising.

    According to the Mozilla research, popular global brands including BMW, Ford, Toyota, Tesla, Kia, and Subaru: “Can collect deeply personal data such as sexual activity, immigration status, race, facial expressions, weight, health and genetic information, and where you drive. Researchers found data is being gathered by sensors, microphones, cameras, and the phones and devices drivers connect to their cars, as well as by car apps, company websites, dealerships, and vehicle telematics.”

    In fact, the seasoned Mozilla team said “cars are the worst product category we have ever reviewed for privacy” after finding that all 25 car brands they researched earned the “Privacy Not Included” warning label. Since that doesn’t give us much of a choice to go for a brand that respects our privacy, I suggest we turn off our phones before we start the car. It’s both safer and better for your privacy.”

    Liked by 2 people

  3. Alrighty then….the weather is so beautiful, with the wind having dropped and temp at 69….I looked to see where Jake was – sleeping in the bedroom – so I shut the door, then came back and opened the patio doors. Wheezer was sleeping in his chair and promptly jumped down and came over for some loving. He followed me inside and checked out the utility room, looked down the hallway, made a turn around the bathroom, then followed me back to my dining area.

    I sat down and he laid down on the floor, next to my foot, and started rolling over so I would rub his belly, rubbing all over my foot and leg. When I got up, he stayed right next to me and followed outside. I turned and came back inside and closed the doors – he sat there for a few seconds, then turned his attention to his food. Of course, Jake came out as soon as I opened the door and he is now giving the floor the once over, smelling every square inch, with a few hairs standing up on his neck! NOT a happy camper! LOL

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  4. guy pretending to be a woman, was released after setting fires. within 2 hours he tried to commit armed robbery
    article
    A transgender serial arsonist was charged with armed robbery within two hours of being freed without bail by a New York judge.

    Amanda Burnside, a Southampton man who claims to be a “woman,” was in court after being arrested for lighting fires at three houses.

    After the judge let him walk free, he ignited a new investigation less than two hours later on armed robbery charges, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.

    Burnside was released on his own recognizance despite prosecutors’ request that the judge set bail at $500,000 or $1 million bond.

    A judge ordered him to report for supervised release within 72 hours.

    Instead, according to authorities, he waited less than two hours before acquiring a knife.

    He then went into a Dollar Tree store and tried to rob it.

    The fiasco prompted District Attorney Ray Tierney to blast the state’s bail laws.

    Tierney is the lead prosecutor in the Gilgo Beach serial killer case.

    “Clearly, the dangerousness of this defendant, who allegedly tried to ignite three homes on fire, was not adequately considered, given that within two hours of [his] arraignment, [he] allegedly committed another serious, violent felony,” Tierney said Monday night.

    “Furthermore, the danger that this defendant posed to society could never be adequately considered insofar as dangerousness is not a bail factor that judges can consider under New York State law.”

    New York’s radical bail reform laws have been a major issue for the state’s Democrats and local jurisdictions.

    https://slaynews.com/news/transgender-serial-arsonist-charged-armed-robbery-2-hours-freed-ny-judge/

    Liked by 1 person

  6. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

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