Rocksday

Citrine

Yellow to orange quartz. Natural citrine is pale and fairly rare; most citrine sold today is heat-treated amethyst.

Citrine specimen
Photo: Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

How to identify citrine

  • Pale lemon to honey-orange quartz, hardness 7.
  • Heat-treated amethyst geodes turn burnt orange at the tips with white bases — a giveaway.
  • Natural pieces have an even, soft yellow color.

Often confused with

Where it's found

  • Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
  • Madagascar
  • Zambia
  • Ural Mountains, Russia

Uses

Gemstones and decorative clusters.

Rock tumbling

Great for tumbling.

Did you know?

Bright orange 'citrine' clusters with white bases are almost always baked amethyst.

Think you could spot it from a blurry close-up?

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