CITRINE BEADS, LIGHT COLOR, FACETED ROUNDELL SHAPE, 6-7MM

Citrine is the golden variety of quartz. Its name, derived from the French “citron,” means lemon. Although its chemical composition is nearly identical to amethyst, citrine’s golden color comes from the trace amounts of iron while amethyst’s purple comes from manganese. Like both amethyst and smoky quartz, citrine’s color may fade if left in sunlight.
Natural gem-quality citrine, most of which is pale yellow, is extremely rare. The finest stones come from Brazil or Spain. Most citrine is heat-treated amethyst or smoky quartz, and has a reddish tint. Stones which have been heat-treated have no pleochroism, while the natural stones show weak pleochroism.
Citrine actually became popular in the mid-1700s when it was discovered that smoky quartz and amethyst would turn golden when burned between temperatures of 470 and 560 degrees.
Citrine has a long history of being confused with yellow topaz---it’s been called Bahia-topaz, gold topaz, Spanish topaz, and Madeira topaz—but citrine’s specific gravity is much lighter than topaz’s, and topaz is harder stone with more fire.