Aventurine, Meaning, Properties, and Facts

What is aventurine

Aventurine is quartz, usually a quartzite rock of interlocking quartz grains, with small platy crystals of another mineral spread through it. When light hits those flat flakes they flash, an effect called aventurescence. Green aventurine owes its color and glitter to fuchsite, a mica colored by chromium, while orange and red aventurine get theirs from hematite or goethite. The name comes from aventurine glass, the copper-flecked glass also called goldstone, named from the Italian a ventura, by chance, after a lucky accident in Venetian glassmaking.

Aventurine properties

Aventurine properties are mostly quartz properties, though the flakes and grain boundaries can pull the hardness a little below 7. It has no cleavage, so it resists splitting, and it takes a good polish. Details are on geology.com's aventurine page.

Where aventurine is found

Aventurine is found in quartz-rich rocks that carry the right flaky minerals, and India supplies most of the green aventurine on the market, much of it worked near Mysore and Chennai. Brazil also produces green stone, and Chile, Spain and Russia are known for creamy, gray and orange material.

Aventurine stone colors

Aventurine stone colors run from the familiar green through blue, peach, red, yellow, white and gray. Green is the classic and the most common. Because aventurine is a rock, it does not grow as single crystals, so an aventurine crystal point or tower has been cut and polished from a larger block. Rough pieces look like sugary, glittering quartz.

How to tell if aventurine is real

To tell if aventurine is real, look at the sparkle under a loupe. Natural aventurine shows flat, irregular flakes lying at different angles in grainy quartz, so it glitters unevenly as you turn it. Goldstone, the man-made glass sold in brown, blue and green, sparkles with tiny, evenly spaced metallic flecks and often shows bubbles. Dyed quartzite holds color in its cracks and grain boundaries. Green aventurine is also sold under the misleading name Indian jade, and it gets confused with amazonite, a blue-green feldspar with white streaks and no glitter.

Aventurine care: water and sun

Aventurine care is simple because water does not harm quartz: rinse it, scrub it with a soft brush and mild soap, and dry it. Natural green aventurine holds its color in sunlight, since the green comes from a chromium mica, but dyed stones can fade. At 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs scale it shrugs off most everyday scratches, though a hard knock can still chip an edge.

Aventurine price and value

Aventurine price and value are modest, since India produces it in bulk. Tumbled stones and small carvings are some of the most affordable crystals sold. Value rises with even, saturated color, strong sparkle, translucency and fine carving.

Aventurine meaning and benefits

Aventurine meaning in crystal lore is luck and opportunity, and the benefits people claim for it are good fortune, prosperity and a steadier mind. That is belief, not chemistry. The luck story probably borrows from the name itself, which means by chance.

Aventurine for sale

Aventurine for sale at geoslut comes in drops. Each piece is one of one, photographed in daylight and labeled with its locality, and the list hears first.

Aventurine FAQ

Can aventurine go in water?

Aventurine can go in water for cleaning, and natural stone will not dissolve or soften.

Is aventurine a real crystal?

Aventurine is a real stone but not a single crystal: it is a rock made of many small quartz grains.

What is the difference between aventurine and jade?

The difference between aventurine and jade is the mineral: aventurine is quartz with mica flakes, while jade is jadeite or nephrite.

Is green aventurine rare?

Green aventurine is not rare: it is one of the most common and affordable green stones.

Sources

• Aventurine, geology.com
• Aventurine, Wikipedia