How to Identify the Real Citrine Stone? What does Recycled Citrine mean?

Let's Start with "What is Citrine?"

Citrine stone is also known as the money stone. Since ancient times, people have believed that citrine stone brings abundance and prosperity. On the other hand, this natural stone is also known as the health stone because it is thought to be a powerful healer. It is a member of the quartz family like amethyst and opal, but a distinguished member. Since citrine stone has a color similar to the sun, it is believed to contain high energy like the sun. This color temperature is associated with happiness and romance because it evokes daylight and enlightenment.

Although it can be found in many parts of the world, its deposits are mainly found in a few countries such as Brazil, Madagascar, and Russia. Although it is widely available, it is not easy to find this semi-precious stone. Citrine is a rare stone and therefore more valuable than stones such as amethyst and smoky quartz, which are in the quartz group.

The rarity and value of genuine citrine stone has led many market players marketing this product to resort to different methods to obtain this product. In this article, we will examine these methods and try to provide information that will help you identify genuine and fake citrine stones. The question of how to recognize original citrine stone is asked a lot.

Before moving on to the subject of how to recognize real citrine stone, it would be useful to make a preliminary determination. There are three types of citrine stones on the market.

Natural Citrine
Processed Citrine
Fake Citrine

Natural citrine is a stone that has acquired its characteristics such as color and structure under natural conditions and has not been subjected to any human intervention.

Processed citrine, It is the name given to the stones obtained by heating amethyst or smoky quartz in industrial furnaces to at least 482 degrees Celsius to give it the color specific to citrine stone.

As can be understood from the classification above, citrine obtained by processing is not considered fake by many, but is considered an innocent solution to the rarity of natural citrine. They argue that amethyst and smoky quartz that are subjected to processing can be accepted as real citrine because they belong to the quartz family like citrine and therefore have the same properties and chemical structure.

How to Identify Genuine Citrine Stone?

We will try to find the answer to this question under six headings.

Color Evaluation
Crystal Structure Evaluation
Clarity Assessment
Bubble Evaluation
Heating Evaluation
Hardness assessment

In line with these evaluations made in a proper manner, you will be able to distinguish fake, processed and real citrine stones to a certain extent.

1. Color Evaluation

As the Greek word “citron” from which it takes its name means “lemon” suggests, citrine is a semi-precious natural stone with a predominantly yellow color. It is also seen to transition from yellow to light brown, which is thought to be due to the iron element it contains. It is sometimes seen to be so pale that it can be called colorless. Darker ones are also found to be saffron yellow, wine and honey yellow.

To understand whether the stone you own is citrine or not, you can use the color tone variety table above as a starting point, but let's not forget that not every natural stone compatible with these tones may be citrine.

Amethyst and smoky quartz, which are in the quartz group like citrine, are transformed into citrine color by heat treatment. Although they have similar characteristics such as the same hardness level because they are in the same group, these processed stones are of course not genuine citrine stones. Many stones that are commercially available as citrine stones in the market are actually not citrine but a heat-treated form of amethyst or smoky quartz. This method is used because citrine is rarer than these two stones and therefore more valuable.

In order to identify a genuine citrine stone, the thing to do is to carefully examine the color of the stone. Although the color of our stone has the colors mentioned above, the color distribution should not be irregular and there should be no sudden tone changes. In addition, if our stone has whiteness, especially at the base, it may be heat-treated amethyst or smoky quartz or worse, painted glass.

An additional tip for recognizing processed amethyst, the most common natural stone sold on the market under the name of citrine: Heated amethysts tend to have a slight greenish tinge to their yellow color; pay attention to this too.

2. Crystal Structure Evaluation

The crystals of the citrine stone are long parallel-sided and large-toothed like smoky quartz. The crystal structure of the amethyst stone is mostly small like dog teeth. In addition, natural citrine generally has smooth faulted horizontal lines.

With this evaluation method, you can avoid purchasing heat-treated amethyst instead of citrine, but you still run the risk of purchasing smoky quartz.

3. Clarity Assessment

When you hold your stone under a bright white light and examine it from different angles, there should be no dots or inclusions that can be noticed with the naked eye. Because citrines are known to be stones that do not have any flaws or errors that can be detected with the naked eye.

4. Bubble Evaluation

Examine your stone by holding it up to a strong light and using a microscope or jeweler's loupe that magnifies it at least 10 times. If you can see small air bubbles in the stone, your stone is unfortunately fake. You can especially detect painted glass with this method.

5. Heating Evaluation

Although it does not work on natural stones that have been given a citrine appearance by heat treatment, it is a method that we can use to detect painted stones that have been given a citrine stone appearance. Heat the stone in your hand with a match or lighter and observe the change. If the color of the stone changes and there is deformation in its physical structure, you can understand that your natural stone is not so natural after all.

6. Hardness assessment

According to the Mohs scale, citrine stone has a hardness value of 7. You cannot scratch real citrine with minerals below this hardness value. For example, glass cannot scratch citrine stone, but citrine glass can easily scratch it. If the stone in your hand is scratched by glass, it is fake.

But let's not forget that amethyst and smoky quartz have the same hardness level and you cannot distinguish heat-treated citrine from the real thing with this method.

All these evaluations we have made in order to answer the question of “How to understand real citrine stone?” may not give you a 100% accurate result. If getting a definitive result on this issue is important to you, we recommend that you consult an expert jeweler.

How to Identify Fake Citrine Stone?

If the citrine stone changes color when exposed to heat, the citrine stone is fake.

Is Citrine Stone Unlucky?

Citrine stone has no scientific connection with good luck.

Does Citrine Stone Change Color?

When you start heating the citrine stone, the frozen water inside it starts to melt. When the water melts, you can observe the change in the stone. If there is no color change, the stone in your hand is real. The coating of the fake citrine stone melts when exposed to high temperatures.

Why is Citrine Stone White?

The base of a citrine stone produced in an artificial environment is white. Therefore, if the citrine stone turns white over time, it may have been produced in an artificial environment.